^^^w^  ui  im'c^ 


T, 


Of 


T^lVr    ""'"''--M.    1829- 
^^-   •Ministry  of    the   word 


THE 


MAR  8  1913 


>Ml 


MINISTRY  OF  THE  WORD. 


sy 


BY 


WM.    M.    TAYLOR,    D.D., 

MINISTER  OF  THE  BROADWA  Y  TABERNACLE,  NEW  YORK  CITY. 


Lefl  J^.  ^ulL,,   1^. 


NEW   YORK: 
ANSON    U.    F.    RANDOLPH    &    COMPANY, 

900  BROADWAY,  Cor.  20th  Street. 
1876. 


Copyright,  1876,  by 
Anson  D.  F,  Randolph  &  Company 


f^X^" 


ROBERT    RUTTER, 

BINDER, 
U   BEEKMAN   STREET,  N.  Y. 


EDWARD  O.  JENKINS, 
PRINTER   AND   STEREOTYrER, 
20  NORTH  WILLIAM  ST..  N.  Y. 


Til  AIAKONIA  TOT  AOTOT  nP02KAPTEPH20MEN. 

— ^AcTS  vi.  4. 


PREFACE. 


This  book  is  not  a  Treatise  on  Homiletics.  Neither  is  it 
a  ministerial  autobiography.  But  it  is  an  attempt  to  give 
to  my  younger  brethren  in  the  pulpit,  and  to  those  who 
are  preparing  for  the  ministry,  some  practical  hints  which 
I  should  have  been  thankful  to  have  received  twenty  years 
ago,  and  which  have  been  suggested  to  me  as  much  by  the 
blunders  as  by  the  successes  of  my  public  life. 

To  my  seniors  they  may  seem  to  be  of  little  importance ; 
but  I  was  not  writing  for  them.  My  aim  has  been  to  set 
before  my  readers  a  few  first  principles  emphasized  by  ex- 
perience, and  if  my  book  shall  be  to  any  young  minister 
like  the  hand  of  an  elder  brother  held  back  to  help  him 
forward,  I  shall  rejoice  even  more  than  he. 

The  course  was  prepared  especially  for  the  theological 
students  of  Yale  College,  as  the  "  Lyman  Beecher  Lec- 
tures "  for  1876  ;  but  selections  from  it  were  delivered  also 
to  the  members  of  Union,  Princeton,  and  Oberlin  Theo- 
logical Seminaries. 

To  these  young  brethren,  with  whom  I  have  been 
brought  so  pleasantly  into  fellowship ;  to  the  members  of 
the  Faculties  of  the  Seminaries  which  I  have  named,  and 
to  all  interested  in  the  education  of  "  the  Sons  of  the 
Prophets,"  I  dedicate  this  volume,  with  the  prayer  that  He 
"whose  I  am,  and  whom  I  serve,"  may  make  it  largely 
useful  to  those  who  are  preparing  to  give  themselves  to 
"  the  ministry  of  the  Word." 

New  York,  April,  1876. 


CONTENTS. 


I.  The  Nature  and  Design  of  the  Christian 

Ministry,  .......      i 

II.  The  Preparation  of  the  Preacher,    .   .  23 

III.  The  Preparation  of  the  Preacher — Con- 

tinued,    51 

IV.  The  Theme  and  Range  of  the  Pulpit,   .        .    79 

V.  The  Qualities  of  Effective  Preaching — in 

THE  Sermon, 105 

VI.  The  Qualities  of  an  Effective  Sermon— in 

THE  Preacher, 129 

VII.  Expository  Preacmng, 153 

VIII.  On  the  Use  of  Illustrations  in  Preaching,  181 

IX.  The  Conduct  of  Public  Worship— Reading  of 

THE  Scriptures, 205 

X.  The  Conduct  of  Public  Worship— Praise  and 

Prayer,      ....  ...  229 

XI.  The  Pastorate  and  Pastoral  Visitation,     .  257 

XII.  The    Relation    of    the    Pulpit   to   Present 

Questions, 281 

Passages  of  Scripture  Quoted  or  Referred  to,    .  307 

Index,  .        ,        , 309 


LECTURE    I. 

THE     NATURE     AND     DESIGN     OF     THE     CHRISTIAN 
MINISTRY. 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  THE  WORD. 


LECTURE    I. 

THE   NATURE  AND   DESIGN   OF  THE   CHRISTIAN 
MINISTRY. 

<<  \\f  HAT  can  the  man  do  that  cometh  after  the 
^^  King?"  My  two  distinguished  predeces- 
sors in  this  Lectureship,  unmindful  of  the  generous 
order  of  Boaz  to  his  reapers,  to  "  let  fall  some  of  the 
handfuls  of  purpose  "  for  the  poor  Gentile  gleaner, 
have  so  thoroughly  swept  the  field,  that  nothing  is 
left  for  me  save  here  and  there  an  ear.  This  would 
be  hard  for  anyone ;  how  much  more  for  one  who 
has  to  confess  that  he  is,  as  yet,  a  learner  in  the  de- 
partment in  which  they  are  masters !  For  two  and 
twenty  years  I  have  been  striving  to  reach  my  ideal 
of  the  Christian  preacher,  and  it  seems  to  me  as  if  I 
were  to-day  as  far  from  it  as  ever.  Always  as  I  have 
appeared  to  advance  towards  it,  it  has  fled  before 
me,  and  still  it  hovers  above  and  beyond  me,  beck- 
oning me  on  to  some  attainment  yet  unrealized. 
Never  did  it  seem  to  me  so  difficult  to  preach  as  it 
does  to-day.  The  magnitude  of  the  work  grows  upon 
me  the  longer  I  engage  in  it  ;  and  with  every  new 


2  THE   MINISTRY  OF   THE    WORD. 

attempt  I  make,  there  comes  the  painful  conscious- 
ness that  I  have  not  yet  attained.  Twenty  years  ago, 
I  thought  I  could  preach  a  little,  and  flattered  my- 
self that  I  knew  something  about  Homiletics.  Now 
I  feel  that  I  am  but  a  beginner,  and  the  thought  of 
addressing  you  upon  such  a  subject  fills  me  wi.th  dis- 
may. Still  we  may  get  on  well  together,  if  only  you 
will  consent  to  regard  me  as  a  fellow-student,  or 
at  least  as  an  elder  brother,  striving  with  you  after 
the  same  end,  and  speaking  to  you  out  of  the  full- 
ness of  his  heart,  that  he  may  warn  you  to  avoid  the 
mistakes  which  he  has  made,  and  stimulate  you  to 
aim  after  that  efficiency  on  which  his  own  heart  is 
set. 

The  nature  of  this  Lectureship  requires  that  he 
who  holds  it,  for  the  time,  should  deal  with  the  sub- 
ject, as  illustrated  by  his  own  experience.  It  may 
be  well,  therefore,  in  the  outset,  that  I  should  men- 
tion one  or  two  cautions  which  need  to  be  kept  in 
mind  by  you,  while  we  are  proceeding  with  our  ad- 
dresses. 

In  the  first  place,  it  must  be  fully  understood  by 
you,  that  no  one  can  begin  precisely  at  that  point  at 
which  another  has  arrived  only  after  long  years  of 
persevering  effort.  The  son  of  the  merchant  entering 
upon  the  possession  of  his  father's  fortune,  may  com- 
mence housekeeping  on  the  same  scale  as  his  parents. 
But,  even  then,  it  has  been  generally  seen  that  he  is 
deficient  in  those  qualities  of  character  which  were 
most  distinctive  in  his  father,  and  which  in  him  were 
formed  by  the  struggle  through  which  he  wrestled  up 


DESIGN  OF   CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY.  3 

to  his  success.  You  may  acquire  a  legacy  in  a  mo- 
ment, but  you  cannot,  all  at  once,  step  into  that 
homiletic  habit  which  it  has  taken  another  long  years 
to  form,  and  by  which  he  is  able  at  a  glance  to  see 
into  the  heart  of  a  subject,  and  to  know  precisely  how 
to  treat  it  so  as  to  impress  his  hearers  most  deeply 
with  its  importance.  You  cannot  obtain,  as  one  might 
say,  ready-made,  that  ease  in  work  and  fluency  in  ut- 
terance which  it  has  taken  him  almost  a  lifetime  to 
acquire. 

Some,  indeed,  have,  from  the  very  first,  mani- 
fested such  skill  in  handling  subjects,  and  such 
eloquence  in  discoursing  on  them,  that  we  may  fairly 
speak  of  them  as  men  of  genius,  in  this  peculiar  de- 
partment. But  these  are  the  exceptions.  The  great 
majority  of  those  who  have  become  eminent  in  the 
pulpit,  have  grown  into  their  greatness.  They  have, 
under  God,  made  themselves  for  their  position,  by 
watchful  self- discipline,  and  steady  perseverance. 
Now,  you  cannot  reach  the  end  at  which  they  have 
arrived,  without  using  means  similar  to  those  which 
they  employed.  At  first  they  were,  as  you  are  now, 
inexperienced,  and,  perhaps,  also  somewhat  censo- 
rious, more  skillful  in  criticising  the  sermons  of  others 
than  in  sermonizing  for  themselves.  But  at  length, 
inspired  by  love  to  Christ  and  to  the  souls  of  men, 
they  have  been  led  so  to  train  themselves  for  their 
work,  that  they  have  become  truly  great. 

Behind  the  present  ability  of  such  men  as  these, 
there  is  a  history  which  must  never  be  lost  sight  of,  for 
if  without  their  history  you  try  to  perform  their  work. 


4  THE  MINISTRY  OF    THE    WORD. 

in  their  particular  way,  you  will  inevitably  and  igno- 
miniously  fail.  Thus,  one  tells  us  that  he  prepares  his 
sermons  on  the  Lord's  day  on  which  they  are  delivered; 
and  that  he  never  writes  more  than  the  merest  outline 
of  them  ;  and  you  know  that  thousands  hang  with 
breathless  interest  upon  his  lips.  But  that  is  the 
ultimatum  at  which  he  has  arrived,  after  a  lifetime  of 
such  experiences  as  have  rarely  fallen  to  the  lot  of 
any  man,  and  after  a  discipline  which  has  been  in 
some  respects  as  thorough  as  it  has  been  peculiar. 
Now,  if  you  begin  by  trying  to  do  as  he  is  doing  now, 
you  will  be  as  successful  mistakes  as  David  would  have 
been  in  the  armor  of  Saul. 

Another  describes  to  us  how  he  has  discarded  the  use, 
if  not  also  the  preparation,  of  a  manuscript,  and  as  you 
listen  to  his  stately  eloquence,  and  see  the  magnificent 
ease  with  which  he  appears  to  sway  his  audiences,  you 
may  be  led  to  attempt,  at  one  leap,  to  vault  up  to  the 
height  on  which  he  stands.  But  he  had  to  go  up,  by  a 
long  series  of  single  steps,  the  ascent  of  Avhich  involved 
the  labor  of  a  quarter  of  a  century,  and  what  is  your 
puny  jump  to  that  ? 

Let  it  be  distinctly  understood,  then,  that  the  value 
of  all  such  autobiographic  glimpses  as  these  friends 
have  given  us,  and  as  we  may  give,  consists  in  the 
unfolding  of  processes  of  self-culture,  and  in  the  stim- 
ulus which  these  impart,  rather  than  in  the  commend- 
ing of  the  particular  methods  which  in  individual 
cases  have  been  adopted. 

Again,  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  no  one  man  can 
merge  his  individuality  into  that  of  another.  If  one  is  to 


DESIGX   OF  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY.  5 

do  anything  effectively  in  the  pulpit,  or  elsewhere,  he 
must  be  himself.  It  is  the  glory  of  the  Gospel  of 
Christ  that  it  lifts  into  itself,  and  transmutes  into  ele- 
ments of  power,  the  very  personal  idiosyncracies  of  its 
preachers.  No  one  of  the  apostles  was  cast  precisely  in 
the  mold  of  another.  John,  and  Peter,  and  Paul  had 
their  distinctive  features,  each  of  which  was  made  in- 
strumental in  bringing  out  some  new  phase  of  the 
truth  which  they  all  alike  proclaimed.  And  as  it  was 
with  them,  so  it  is  still.  No  preacher  should  try  to  form 
himself  after  the  model  of  another.  If  you  make  such 
an  attempt,  you  may  depend  upon  it  that  what  is 
character  in  your  exemplar,  will  in  you  degenerate 
into  caricature.  There  is  something  noble  in  a  voice, 
but  however  excellent  an  echo  may  be  as  a7i  echoy 
there  is  a  hoUowness  and  an  indistinctness  about  it 
which  gives  it  unreality.  The  poorest  wild  flower 
that  blooms  beneath  the  hedge,  is  better  than  the 
richest  waxen  imitation  of  the  camelia  or  the  rose, 
for  it  has  a  beauty  and  a  fragrance  of  its  own. 

Artificiality  is  repulsive  anywhere,  but  in  the  pulpit 
it  is  worse  than  offensive  ;  for  there  it  robs  the  man  of 
that  distinctive  and  individual  power  which  God  has 
given  to  him  for  the  very  purpose  of  ministering  to  his 
efficiency.  The  preaching  of  the  gospel  has  been  com- 
mitted to  men,  that  through  their  very  manhood  it  may 
tell  the  better  on  those  whom  they  address  ;  and  as  each 
has  his  own  particular  characteristics,  it  will  be  found 
that  in  so  far  forth  as  he  gives  them  play,  he  will  have 
a  power  over  his  audience  which  no  other  man  can 
wield.     Those  who  have  risen  to  the  highest  useful- 


6  THE  MINISTRY  OF   THE    WORD. 

ness  have  done  so  through  the  consecration  of  them- 
selves to  their  work.  They  have  laid  themselves — 
not  the  poor  imitations  of  other  men — upon  the  altar, 
and  the  lesson  of  their  history  is,  not  that  we  should 
try  to  make  ourselves  into  them,  but  that  we  should, 
like  them,  use  all  our  powers  and  develop  all  our  in- 
dividuality in  the  noble  work  in  which  we  are  en- 
gaged. 

Once  more :  Ave  must  bear  in  mind,  that  in  the  min- 
istry, as  in  other  pursuits,  success  results  only  from 
continuous  and  systematic  labor.  Usefulness  is  not 
a  mere  accident.  Even  of  Paul  and  Barnabas  it  is 
recorded  on  one  occasion  that  they  "  so  spake  that  a 
great  multitude  of  the  Jews,  and  also  of  the  Greeks 
believed,""^  implying  that  there  was  in  their  discourses 
a  special  fitness  to  produce  conviction  in  the  minds 
of  their  hearers.  Now,  the  attainment  of  this  adap- 
tation in  our  sermons  requires  study.  It  does  not 
come  of  itself.  It  is  not  in  us  as  it  was  in  them,  the 
result  of  a  supernatural  inspiration.  It  is  the  fruit  of 
■work.  True,  there  are  some  men  so  organized  that 
no  amount  of  painstaking  on  their  part  will  ever 
make  them  effective  speakers.  True,  again,  there  are 
others  who  are  by  nature  more  highly  gifted  than 
their  fellows  in  the  attributes  of  the  orator ;  yet 
even  in  their  case  the  larger  part  of  genius  is  perse- 
verance ;  and  to  him  who  desires  to  succeed  in  per- 
suading men  by  his  public  utterances,  it  must  still  be 
said  ''  in  the  sweat  of  thy  brow  shalt  thou  eat "  this 
bread  also. 

♦Acts  xiv.  I. 


DESIGN  OF   CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY.  y 

There  will  be  many  difficulties  to  overcome,  and 
many  excellences  to  be  acquired.  Oftentimes  hu- 
miliating failures  will  be  made ;  and  not  seldom 
he  will  be  tempted  to  give  up  the  whole  work  in 
utter  hopelessness.  But  if  he  will  only  labor  on, 
with  an  entire  devotion  to  his  calling,  an  overmas- 
tering love  to  his  fellow-men,  and  a  sincere  desire  to 
glorify  his  Lord,  then  he  may  look  for  some  fair  meas- 
ure of  usefulness,  and  may  even  attain  to  that  ease 
and  affluence  of  speech  which,  in  others,  he  has  so 
often  contemplated  with  the  envy  of  despair.  When 
one  reads  of  the  confusion  of  face  which  attended  the 
first  efforts  of  such  a  man  as  Robert  Hall,  or  of  the 
ridiculous  appearances  which  some  of  our  greatest 
political  orators  have  made  in  the  outset  of  their 
careers,  he  will  be  encouraged  to  take  heart  again  ; 
for  though  we  are  not  all  endowed  as  Hall  was  origi- 
nally, yet  we  may  all  endow  ourselves  with  persever- 
ance, and  in  the  end  that  will  tell  in  bringing  out  the 
best  of  which  we  are  capable. 

Let  it  never  be  forgotten,  then,  that  he  who  would 
rise  to  eminence  and  usefulness  in  the  pulpit,  and  be- 
come "  wise  in  winning  souls,"  must  say  of  the  work 
of  the  ministry,  ''  This  one  thing  I  do."  He  must  fo- 
cus his  whole  heart  and  life  upon  the  pulpit.  He  must 
give  his  days  and  his  nights  to  the  production  of  those 
addresses  by  which  he  seeks  to  convince  the  judgments, 
and  move  the  hearts,  and  elevate  the  lives  of  his 
hearers. 

All  this,  I  know,  is  opposed  to  the  common  view. 
In  the  opinion  of  multitudes,  the  life  of  a  minister  is 


8  THE  MINISTRY  OF    THE    WORD. 

one  of  ease  and  leisure.  They  see  him  only  in  the 
pulpit ;  and  as  they  mark  the  apparent  "  abandon  "  of 
his  manner,  and  listen  to  the  easy  cadence  of  his 
speech,  they  think  that  it  has  cost  him  little.  So  as  you 
look  upon  the  accomplished  gymnast  flourishing  his 
Indian  clubs  to  the  time  of  the  musician,  he  seems  to 
be  making  little  effort,  and  you  imagine  you  could  do 
as  well  yourself  But  try  it,  and  you  will  discover 
that  he  has  acquired  that  graceful  ease  only  by  long 
and  laborious  training,  and  that,  for  all  so  simple  as 
it  appears  to  be,  he  is  straining  every  muscle  to  its  ut- 
most, and  the  whole  man  is  putting  forth  his  energy. 
Similarly  in  preaching,  that  which  seems  so  easy,  has 
been  made  so  only  by  strenuous  exertion. 

If,  therefore,  young  gentlemen,  you  have  chosen  the 
ministry,  expecting  to  be  carried  to  heaven  "  on  flowery 
beds  of  ease,"  you  have  made  an  egregious  mistake. 
With  such  ideas,  you  will  never  rise  above  the  merest 
drones,  and  you  had  better  at  once  seek  out  some 
other  pursuit.  But  if  with  something  like  worthy 
views  of  the  design  and  reward  of  the  gospel  minis- 
try you  give  yourselves  unreservedly  and  wisely 
to  its  prosecution  ;  then,  in  spite  of  its  arduous  toils, 
you  may  look  for  joys,  the  like  of  which  this  world 
gives  to  no  other  laborers.  "  All  other  pleasures  are 
not  worth  its  pains,"  and  as  you  hear  the  cry  of  the 
inquirer,  "  What  must  I  do  to  be  saved  ?"  or  the  song 
of  the  convert  whom  you  have  brought  to  Jesus, 
there  will  be  to  you  '■'■  an  over-payment  of  delight " 
for  all  the  exertions  which  you  have  made.  Through 
many  bitter  mortifications  you   may  have  to   pass: 


DESIGN  OF  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY.  g 

and  not  seldom  you  may  be  driven  to  your  closet, 
with  the  wailing  cry  of  the  old  prophet,  "  Who  hath 
believed  our  report  ?"  But  your  very  mistakes,  wise- 
ly interpreted,  will  guide  you  to  success ;  and  that 
longing  for  results  which  yearns  in  your  hearts  will 
stir  you  up  to  '^  be  strong  and  play  the  men  "  for 
Jesus  and  His  truth. 

Understand,  then,  that  in  the  lectures  which  I  am 
now  to  deliver,  I  do  not  bring  to  you  any  ''  short  and 
easy  method  "  to  ministerial  usefulness  and  success. 
I  have  nothing  but  the  good  old  message  of  ''work." 
You  are  not  here,  like  so  many  tanks,  to  be  filled  up 
by  the  professors,  and  from  which  week  after  week 
the  prescribed  quantity  is  to  be  drawn  for  the  supply 
of  the  people.  But  you  are  here  to  put  on  those  habits 
of  study  which,  though  they  may  sit  more  easily  on 
you  as  the  years  revolve,  you  must  keep  on  you  to 
the  very  end  of  your  course,  if  at  least  you  would  be 
"  workmen  needing  not  to  be  ashamed,  rightly  divid- 
ing the  word  of  truth. "^  But  that  is  no  hardship. 
That  will  be  your  very  life,  for  it  will  keep  you  from 
the  rust  and  must  of  decay,  while  at  the  same  time  it 
will  minister  to  your  highest  happiness,  provided  only 
3^our  hearts  be  in  your  work  :  for  "  the  labor  we  delight 
in  physics  pain."  I  give  you  joy,  therefore,  in  the  pros- 
pect that  is  before  you,  and  as  one  never  labors  so 
effectively  as  when  he  sings  at  his  toil — take  this  as 
your  life  song: 

"  I  must  work,  through  months  of  toil 
And  years  of  cultivation, 

*  2  Tim.  ii.  15. 


lO  THE  MINISTRY  OF   THE    WORD. 

Upon  my  proper  patch  of  soil 

To  grow  my  own  plantation. 
I'll  take  the  showers  as  they  fall ; 

1  will  not  vex  my  bosom  ; 
Enough,  if  at  the  end  of  all 

A  little  garden  blossom."* 

And  now  these  preliminaries  understood,  let  us  ad- 
vance to  the  consideration  of  our  theme.  I  begin  Avith 
the  question, What  is  the  nature  and  design  of  the  Chris- 
tian ministry?  and  for  an  answer  to  that,  I  open  the 
New  Testament,  where  I  learn,  in  the  first  place,  that 
it  is  especially  and  pre-eminently  a  service.  The  first 
minister  is  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  himself;  and  these 
are  His  words,  '' Whosoever  will  be  great  among  you, 
let  him  be  your  minister  ;  and  whosoever  will  be  chief 
among  you,  let  him  be  your  servant ;  even  as  the  son 
of  man  came  not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to  minis- 
ter, and  to  give  his  life  a  ransom  for  many."'!'  To 
the  same  effect  are  these  words  at  the  supper-table : 
"  He  that  is  greatest  among  you,  let  him  be  as  the 
younger ;  and  he  that  is  chief,  as  he  that  doth  serve. 
For  whether  is  greater,  he  that  sitteth  at  meat,  or  he 
that  serveth?  is  not  he  that  sitteth  at  meat?  but  I 
am  among  you  as  he  that  serveth. "if  And  in  harmony 
with  the  principles  thus  enunciated,  we  find  that  when 
the  sons  of  Zebedee  sought  the  highest  places  in  his 
kingdom,  he  said,  '■'■  Can  ye  drink  of  the  cup  that 
I  drink  of,  and  be  baptized  with  the  baptism  that  I 
am  baptized  with  ?  " 

*  Tennyson's  Amphion.  f  Matthew  xx.  26-28. 

\  Lule  xxii.  26-27. 


DESIGN  OF  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY.  n 

Now  it  is  readily  conceded  that  in  these  passages 
there  are  some  things  which  are  distinctive  of  Christ 
and  in  which  we  cannot  perfectly  resemble  Him. 
Thus  it  is  true  that  we  cannot,  in  precisely  the 
same  sense  as  He  did,  give  our  lives  as  ransoms  for 
many.  Yet,  it  is  none  the  less  true,  that  this  spirit 
of  self-sacrifice  lay  at  the  foundation  of  the  excel- 
lence of  Christ's  ministry  as  a  whole,  and  gave  their 
attractiveness  to  His  discourses,  as  well  as  its  re- 
demptive character  to  His  death.  If,  therefore,  we 
may  point  to  Christ's  parables  as  models  for  illustra- 
tion in  the  matter  of  our  sermons,  we  may  surely 
speak  of  the  imitation  of  this  consecration  of  Himself 
to  the  service  of  others,  as  the  great  indispensable  pre- 
requisite to  eminence  in  the  ministry.  In  doing  this, 
indeed,  we  are  only  enforcing  His  own  words  to  James 
and  John,  and  urging  that  the  drinking  of  Christ's  cup 
and  the  submitting  of  ourselves  to  His  baptism,  are 
the  only  passports  to  real  greatness  in  the  work  to 
which  we  have  devoted  ourselves. 

This  principle  is  far-reaching.  It  tells  us  that  it  is 
through  manifold  experiences  of  sorrow  and  pain  that 
Christ  fits  His  ministers  for  their  highest  service.  He 
writes  their  best  sermons  for  them  on  their  own  hearts 
with  the  sharp  "  stylus  "  of  trial,  and  they  are  then  most 
eloquent  and  effective  when  they  read  these  off  to  their 
hearers.  Those  whom  He  calls  to  His  ministry-.  He 
takes  with  Him  into  Gethsemane,  and  such  as  He 
would  make  the  most  eminent  He  takes  the  farthest  in. 
Hov/  deeply  true  that  is,  the  biographies  oi  the  most 
eminent  preachers  will  amply  attest  ! 


12  THE  MINISTRY  OF   THE    WORD. 

But  that  is  not  precisely  the  point  which  I  wish  at  this 
time  to  make  out  of  His  words.  I  want  you  to  mark 
that  this  wilHnghood  to  sacrifice  self  in  the  service  of 
others  is  the  distinctive  feature  of  ministerial  great- 
ness." The  people  are  not  for  the  minister,  but  the  min- 
ister is  for  the  people  ;  and  he  is  to  lose  himself  in  their 
service  and  for  their  benefit.  See  how  Paul  had  learned 
this  lesson,when  he  says,"  We  preach  not  ourselves,  but 
Christ  Jesus,  the  Lord,"  i.  e.,  supplying  the  ellipsis 
"  we  preach  not  ourselves  lords,  but  Christ  Jesus, 
Lord,  and  ourselves  your  servants,  for  Jesus*  sake."  t 


*  It  may  seem  to  some  that  this  is  to  make  the  Christian  min- 
istry only  a  higher  form  of  ordinary  discipleship.  But  is  it,  after 
all,  in  the  light  of  the  New  Testament,  anymore  than  that? 
Unless  we  are  prepared  to  accept  the  doctrine  of  "  orders  ''  with 
all  which  that  involves,  we  must  come  to  the  view  which  I  have 
here  expressed.  I  had  written  the  above  lecture  before  I  saw 
the  late  Principal  Fairbairn's  posthumous  book  on  "  Pastoral 
Theology,''  and  therefore  it  was  with  great  gratification  that  I 
read  these  sentences.  "  It  is  a  fundamental  principle  of  Chris- 
tianity, that  there  is  nothing  absolutely  peculiar  to  any  one  who 

has  a  place  in  the  true  Church If  every  sincere  Christian 

can  say,  '  I  am  one  with  Christ,  and  have  a  personal  interest  in 
all  that  is  His,'  there  can  manifestly  be  no  essential  difference 
between  Him  and  other  believers  ;  and  whatever  may  distinguish 
any  one  in  particular,  either  as  regards  the  call  to  work  or  the 
capacity  to  work  in  the  Lord's  service,  it  must  in  kind  belong  to 
the  whole  community  of  the  faithful,  or  else  form  but  a  subordi- 
nate characteristic.  The  ministry  itself  in  its  distinctive  prerog- 
atives and  functions  is  but  the  more  special  embodiment  and  ex- 
hibiiion  of  those  which  pertain  inherently  to  the  Church,  as 
Christ's  spiritual  body.''     (p.  64.) 

t  2  Corinthians  iv.  5. 


DESIGN  OF   CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY.  13 

Nor  was  this  a  mere  momentary  outflashing  of  senti- 
ment with  the  apostle,  for  we  find  him  describing 
it  as  the  principle  of  his  life  that  he  made  himself 
servant  unto  all  that  he  might  gain  the  more  ;  ^^  and 
even  when  he  was  explaining  what  seemed  to  his 
readers  to  be  a  dereliction  of  duty  towards  them,  he 
said,  "  Not  for  that  we  have  dominion  over  your  faith, 
but  are  helpers  of  your  joy/'f  So  also  Peter  in  ex- 
horting the  elders  is  careful  to  warn  them  to  exercise 
their  oversight,  ''  not  as  being  lords  over  God's 
heritage,  but  being  ensamples  to  the  flock.":}: 

Now  I  put  this  in  the  forefront,  because,  as  it  seems 
to  me,  misunderstanding  here,  goes  very  far  to  account 
for  the  ministerial  failures  over  which  the  churches 
mourn,  and  for  the  partial  character  of  the  successes 
which  have  been  made  by  many  who  were  otherwise 
admirably  adapted  for  the  work.  I  can  never  forget  the 
impression  made  on  me  in  the  early  portion  of  my  Liver- 
pool ministry,  when  a  brother  who  had  just  come  with 
me  from  the  study  of  a  neighbor,  where  we  had  heard 
him  railing  for  a  long  time  against  his  people,  said  to 
me,  ''  The  truth  is,  he  seems  to  think  that  the  con- 
gregation exists  for  him,  but  the  right-hearted  minis- 
ter recognizes  that  he  exists  for  the  congregation. 
Depend  upon  it,  his  work  will  be  a  failure."  And  a 
failure  it  was.  But  all  unconsciously  to  himself,  the 
brother  who  predicted  that,  preached  a  most  power- 
ful sermon  to  me,  for  if  I  have  been  blessed  with  the 


*  I  Corinthians  ix.  19.  t  2  Corinthians  i.  24. 

X  I  Peter  v.  3. 


14  THE  MINISTRY  OF    THE    WORD. 

utmost  harmony  between  my  people  and  myself,  and 
if,  in  any  measure,  I  have  been  useful  to  them,  it  has 
been  because  I  have  tried  to  remember  and  lay  to 
heart  these  simple  words. 

The  office  of  the  preacher  is  that  of  a  helper  of  his 
fellows.  His  special  duty  is  to  lead  them  to  Him 
who  is  their  Helper  and  Redeemer,  and  to  assist 
them  in  the  understanding  of  His  word,  and  in  the 
application  of  its  principles  to  their  daily  lives.  He  is 
not  in  the  ministry,  in  order  that  he  may  be  feted  and 
flattered,  and  made  the  altar  on  which  the  adulation  and 
incense  of  his  people  are  to  be  laid.  He  is  not  set  to 
receive  the  sacrifices  offered  by  his  hearers,  but  rather 
ought  he  to  make  himself  a  sacrifice  on  their  behalf,  aye, 
even  though  sometimes  his  devotion  to  them  may 
be  met  with  ingratitude ;  yet,  none  the  less  is  it  to  be 
continued  by  him.  Hardly  can  we  find  a  more  sub- 
lime spectacle  in  itself,  or  a  more  appropriate  model 
for  the  Christian  minister,  than  that  presented  by 
Paul,  when  he  says,  "  I  will  very  gladly  spend  and 
be  spent  for  you  ;  though  the  more  abundantly  I  love 
you,  the  less  I  be  loved."  "^ 

And  yet,  all  this  abnegation  of  self  is  perfectly 
consistent  with  a  proper  magnifying  of  the  minis- 
terial office,  and  is,  though  it  may  seem  paradox- 
ical to  say  it,  the  surest  means  of  obtaining  the 
affection  and  honor  of  the  people.  He  who  is 
always  hungering  for  these  things,  and  watching 
whether  or  not   they  will  be  rendered  to  him,  never 


*  2  Corinthians  xii.  15. 


DESIGN  OF  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY. 


15 


gets  them  ;  while  he  who  seeks  to  be  the  servant 
of  all — comforting  the  sorrowful,  assisting  the  weak, 
sustaining  the  burdened,  directing  the  perplexed, 
and  cheering  the  disconsolate — will,  as  he  is  pursuing 
his  work,  gather  round  him  the  love  and  confidence 
of  his  people,  so  that  in  time  of  trial  they  shall  be  a 
living  wall  of  defence  around  him  against  all  his  adver- 
saries. Whosoever  will  be  great  in  this  field,  there- 
fore, must  begin  by  renouncing  self.  If  you  make 
yourself  the  end  of  your  ambition,  you  will  lose 
your  labor,  and  do  no  good  either  to  yourself  or  to 
others  ;  but  if  forgetting  self,  you  seek  the  good  of 
your  fellows  for  Christ's  sake,  you  will  bless  them,  and 
have  at  last  their  happiness  added  to  your  own.  In 
all  matters  of  meanness,  or  duplicity,  or  corruption, 
stand  upon  your  dignity,  and  do  not  let  yourselves 
stoop  to  perform  them  ;  but  in  all  matters  of  loving 
service,  seek  your  dignity  through  their  performance, 
for  usefulness  and  eminence,  like  wisdom,  are  "  oft- 
times  nearer  when  we  stoop,  than  when  we  soar." 
Thus,  the  motto  of  the  ministry  is  that  of  the  high- 
est nobility,  'Teh  Dien,"  I  Serve  ;  and  he  who  most 
worthily  acts  out  its  meaning  is  already  in  one  of  its 
loftiest  places. 

But  to  complete  our  idea  of  the  nature  of  the 
ministry,  we  must  take  into  consideration  the  end 
which  in  his  life  of  service  the  preacher  is  to  keep  in 
view.  Now,  we  find  that,  also,  clearly  set  before  us 
in  the  New  Testament,  for  Paul,  in  tracing  up  the 
origin  of  the  ministry  to  the  gift   of  the    ascended 


1 6  THE  MINISTRY  OF   THE    WORD. 

Christ,  has  said,  "  He  gave  some,  apostles ;  and  some, 
prophets ;  and  some,  evangelists ;  and  some,  pastors 
and  teachers  ;  for  the  perfecting  of  the  saints  ;  for  the 
work  of  the  ministry  ;  for  the  edifying  of  the  body  of 
Christ :  till  we  all  come  in  the  unity  of  the  faith,  and 
of  the  knowledge  of  the  Son  of  God,  unto  a  perfect 
man,  unto  the  measure  of  the  stature  of  the  fulness 
of  Christ ;  "  ''^  and  in  describing  his  own  procedure, 
he  speaks  after  this  fashion,  "  Christ  whom  we  preach, 
warning  every  man  and  teaching  every  man,  in  all 
wisdom,  that  we  may  present  every  man  perfect  in 
Christ  Jesus ;  whereunto  I  also  labor,  striving  ac- 
cording to  his  working,  which  worketh  in  me 
mightily."  f 

So  also  in  the  book  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles 
we  observe,  that  in  all  their  public  discourses  the 
first  preachers  of  the  Cross  sought  to  carry  con- 
viction to  the  hearts  of  their  hearers,  and  used  every  . 
means  to  bring  them  to  the  acceptance  of  Christ,  and 
to  the  beginning  of  a  new  life  in  Him.  Now  it  is 
Peter  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  or  in  the  household  of 
Cornelius ;  and  now  it  is  Paul  in  the  synagogue  of 
Antioch,  or  on  the  top  of  Mars  hill,  and  though  like 
men  well  skilled  in  the  reading  of  human  nature,  they 
varied  their  methods  with  the  circumstances  and 
previous  histories  of  their  audiences,  yet  always  they 
had  before  them  as  their  great  aim  the  bringing  of 
souls  to  Christ,  and  the  carrying  of  them  forward  to 
higher  attainments  in  Christ.     Their  constant  design 


Ephesians  iv.  11-13.  f  Colossians  i.  28,  29. 


DESIGN   OF   CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY. 


17 


was  to  move  men  to  accept  Him  as  their  deliverer 
from  sin,  and  to  persuade  them  to  adopt  His  precepts 
as  the  rule,  and  His  example  as  the  model  of  their 
lives.  They  endeavored  everywhere  to  mold  char- 
acter through  the  presentation  of  "  the  truth  as  it  is 
in  Jesus."  Or,  as  Paul  himself  has  phrased  it,  they 
constantly  attempted  ''  by  manifestations  of  the  truth  " 
to  commend  themselves  ^'^  to  every  man's  conscience, 
in  the  sight  of  God."  "^ 

In  doing  this,  they  did  not  care  what  happened 
to  themselves.  They  had  no  eye  or  thought  for 
anything  but  the  benefit  of  their  fellow-men  through 
the  proclamation  of  the  gospel.  Hardship  might 
com.e  upon  them.  They  might  be  cast  into  prison 
or  stoned  till  they  were  left  for  dead.  But  "  none 
of  these  things  moved  them."  They  made  ob- 
jection only  when  men  sought  to  worship  them  as 
gods.  They  did  not  measure  their  success  by  the 
applause  they  evoked,  or  by  the  comforts  they 
secured,  but  only  and  always  by  the  change  which, 
through  the  power  of  God  working  with  them, 
they  produced  upon  their  auditors.  Not  to  display 
themselves,  or  to  win'  for  themselves  the  reputation 
of  eloquence,  did  they  labor.  They  could  say  to  all 
the  congregations  which  they  addressed  what  Paul 
said  to  the  Corinthians,  "  I  seek  not  yours,  but  you  ;"f 
and  their ''joy  and  crown  of  rejoicing "  was  not  in 
the  preaching  of  sermons  which  might  secure  admi- 
ration, but  rather  in  the  winning  of  souls  for  Christ. 


*2  Corinthians  iv.  2.  t  2  Corinthians  xii.  14. 


1 8  THE  MINISTRY  OF   THE    WORD. 

If  they  could  succeed  in  that,  they  took  joyfully  the 
spoiling  of  their  goods ;  and  when,  as  at  Ephesus, 
they  saw  conjurors  renouncing  their  deeds  of  deceit 
and  burning  their  books  of  magic,  they  had  a  reward 
which  more  than  reconciled  them  to  the  ''jeopardy" 
in  which  ''  every  hour  "  they  stood. 

Now  it  is  all-important  that  this  one  absorbing  de- 
sign of  the  Christian  ministry,  as  illustrated  so  glori- 
ously by  the  examples  of  those  who  were  first  invested 
w^ith  it,  should  be  kept  constantly  before  the  mind  of 
the  preacher.  For,  partly  owing  to  the  public  senti- 
ment at  present  existing,  and  partly,  also,  to  the  nec- 
essary rhetorical  training  through  which  all  candidates 
for  the  ministry  must  pass,  there  is  great  danger  of 
our  exalting  that  which  is  only  a  means,  into  the  place 
which  ought  to  be  occupied  by  the  end  to  which  it  is 
subordinate. 

Among  us  everything  runs  to  speech.  The  ex- 
ercises of  a  commencement  day  are  mainly  "  ora- 
tions ;"  and  eloquence  at  once  opens  the  door  to 
office  and  eminence,  both  in  the  State  and  in  the 
Church.  There  is,  besides,  much  that  is  gratifying  to 
human  pride,  in  being  able  to  move  large  masses  of 
people  by  the  power  of  oratory.  And  so  there  is  devel- 
oped one  of  the  perils  of  the  modern  pulpit.  The 
preacher  is  tempted  to  aim  at  eloquence  in  itself,  rather 
than  at  that,  the  gaining  of  which  is  the  true  evidence 
that  he  has  been  eloquent ;  and  the  doing  of  things 
according  to  strict  rhetorical  rule,  is  apt  to  be  more 
accounted  of  than  the  securing  of  men's  hearts  for 
Christ,  and  the  moving  of  them  to  strive  after  that 


DESIGN  OF   CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY.  jg 

holiness  which  he  requires.'^  Now  this  is  fatal,  both  as 
respects  eloquence  and  as  regards  the  impressing  of  our 
fellow-men.  Oratory  existed  before  rhetoric.  He  who 
succeeds  in  persuading  another  by  the  power  of  speech 
is,  ipso  facto^  truly  eloquent.  And  the  rules  of  rhet- 
oric have  been  generalized  from  the  observation  of 
the  methods  of  those  who  have  thus  succeeded.  It 
is  very  far  from  my  object  now  to  undervalue  these 
deductions.  On  the  contrary,  they  have  a  value  in 
their  own  place  which  can  hardly  be  overestimated. 
But  that  place  is  mainly  for  the  pruning  away  of  ex- 
crescences, and  the  correction  of  faults.  They  are 
good  when  you  have  thoroughly  mastered  them,  but 
they  are  dreadfully  pernicious  when  they  have  mastered 
you.  So  long  as  you  are  consciously  speaking  by 
rule,  you  will  be  hampered  as  really  as  if  you  were 
trying  to  walk  in  chains.  You  will  be  stilted,  arti- 
ficial, and  unnatural.  To  strive  after  eloquence  for 
the  sake  of  being  eloquent,  will  destroy  eloquence. 
No  man  ever  yet  became  great  or  effective  in  speech 
until  he  lost  consciousness  of  himself,  and  of  every- 


*  Mr.  Spurgeon  somewhere  tells  of  a  conversation  between 
an  eminent  English  surgeon  and  a  French  doctor,  which  may- 
illustrate  our  meaning  here.  They  were  comparing  notes  regard- 
ing a  certain  very  critical  operation.  The  Frenchman  averred 
that  he  had  performed  it  more  than  three  hundred  times,  while 
the  Englishman  said  that  he  had  attempted  it  only  on  eight  occa- 
sions, "  But  how  many  did  you  save  by  it  ?''  inquired  the  English- 
man. "  Oh,  none  at  all !"  was  the  answer ;  "  but  then  the 
operation  was  brilliant !"  "Ah  !"  replied  the  Englishman,  "  but 
I  saved  seven  out  of  the  eight."  The  salvation  hrst !  then  let 
the  brilliancy  of  the  operation  take  care  of  itself 


20  THE  MINISTRY  OF    THE    WORD. 

thing  else,  in  the  one  overmastering  desire  to  move 
his  hearers  to  adopt  the  course  which  he  is  advo- 
cating." 

Here,  as  in  the  kindred  pursuits  of  art  and  music, 
comes  in  that  gospel  of  unconsciousness  which  Carlyle 
in  one  of  his  essays  has  so  characteristically  expounded. 
'■'■  Moses  wist  not  that  the  skin  of  his  face  shone  while 
he  talked  with  God,"*)-  and  evermore  there  is  this  same 
"  wist  not,"  when  any  one  reaches  the  mountain-top 
of  his  peculiar  power.  He  whose  heart  is  so  earnestly 
set  on  the  salvation  of  men  that  he  travails  in  birth 
of  them  ^'  until  Christ  be  formed  in  them,"  will,  in 
addressing  them,  be  eloquent,  either  according  to  rule, 
or  in  spite  of  rule,  or  above  all  rule ;  but  he  who  is 
desirous  mainly  of  following  some  scholastic  prece- 
dent will  degenerate  into  a  pulpit  pedant. 

The  effort  to  be  eloquent  will  produce  a  rhetorician  ; 
the  concentrated  purpose  to  move  men  to  live  for  God 
in  Christ,  will  produce,  in  the  end,  an  orator,  and  the 


*  The  example  of  Mr.  Jay,  of  Bath,  in  this  respect,  is  most  in- 
structive. •' I  always  found,"  says  that  preacher,  "one  thing 
very  helpful  in  the  choice  and  in  the  study  of  my  subjects.  It 
was  the  feeling  of  a  rightness  of  aim  and  motive,  /.  e.  a  simple 
regard  to  usefulness,  and  a  losing  sight  of  advantage,  popularity, 
and  applause.  This,  it  may  be  said,  is  rather  a  moral  than  an 
intellectual  auxiliary.  Be  it  so.  But  we  know  who  has  said, 
*  When  thine  eye  is  single  thy  whole  body  shall  be  full  of  light.' 
And  is  not  even  reputation  itself  better  and  more  surely  acquired 
when  it  follows  us,  than  when  it  is  pursued.^" — Jay  s  Autobi- 
ography^ p.  140. 

t  Exodus  xxxiv.  29. 


DESIGN  OF   CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY.  2 1 

two  are  as  far  from  each  other  as  the  poles/-  Young 
men,  ''  covet  earnestly  the  best  gifts,  yet  show  I  unto 
you  a  more  excellent  way."  Seek  men,  not  the  repu- 
tation of  eloquence  or  the  incense  of  applause.  Let 
your  motto  be  the  words  of  McAll,  "  I  do  not  want 
their  admiration,  I  want  their  salvation  ;  "  and  as  you 
labor  thus  for  their  best  interests,  wrestling  with  God 
for  them,  and  with  them  for  God,  you  will  be  led  to 
the  best  methods  in  a  natural  way,  and  eloquence  will 
come  before  you  are  aware  of  it,  bringing  its  attestation 
wdth  it  in  the  persons  of  those  who  have  been,  under 
God,  transformed  and  transfigured  by  your  instru- 
mentality. 

Thus  again,  we  come  round  to  the  truth  which  I 
Avish  to  strike  as  the  key-note  of  these  addresses,  that 
SELF-RENUNCIATION  IS  THE  ROOT  OF  EXCELLENCE. 
It  is  told  of  Pousa,  the  Chinese  potter,  that,  being 
ordered  to  produce  some  great  work  for  the  em- 
peror, he  tried  long  to  make  it,  but  in  vain.  At 
length,  driven  to  despair,  he  threw  himself  into  the 
furnace,  and  the  effect  of  his  self-immolation  on  the 
ware,  which  was  then  in  the  fire,  was  such  that  it 
came  out  the  most  beautiful  piece  of  porcelain  ever 
known. f  So  in  the  Christian  ministry,  it  is  self-sacri- 
fice that  gives  real  excellence  and  glory  to  our  work. 
When  self  in  us  disappears,  and  only  Christ  is  seen, 


*  Paraphrasing  the  words  of  Professor  Blackie,  we  might  say- 
here,  "  One  may  as  well  expect  to  mal^e  a  great  patriot  of  a 
fencing-master,  as  to  make  a  great  orator  out  of  a  mere  rhetori- 
cian."    See  Blackie  on  Self-Culture,  p.  18. 

t  See  Harper's  Magazine  for  September,  1875,  p.  502. 


22  THE  MINISTRY  OF   THE    WORD. 

then  will  be  our  highest  success  alike  in  our  own  lives 
and  in  the  moving  of  our  fellow-men.  We  get  near  to 
the  secret  of  Paul's  greatness,  when  we  hear  him  say, 
*'  According  to  my  earnest  expectation  and  my  hope 
that  Christ  shall  be  magnified  in  my  body,  whether  it 
be  by  life  or  by  death  ;  "  "^  and  in  the  measure  in  which 
we  imbibe  his  spirit,  we  shall  rise  to  his  efficiency.  • 
The  worker,  equally  with  the  work,  must  be  offered ' 
up  in  sacrifice  to  Christ,  if  at  least  the  work  is  to  be 
worthy  of  Him  and  of  His  cause. 


*  Philippians  i.  20. 


LECTURE  II. 

THE  PREPARATION  OF  THE  PREACHER. 


LECTURE  II. 

THE  PREPARATION  OF  THE  PREACHER. 

~|  PAVING  glanced  at  the  nature  and  design  of  the 
-■ — *-  work  to  which  the  preacher  has  consecrated  him- 
self, we  are  now  ready  to  inquire  what  are  the  pre- 
requisites to  an  efficient  ministry. 

And  here,  I  take  for  granted  that  the  preacher  is 
himself  a  sincere  and  earnest  Christian,  and  that  he 
will  constantly  seek  the  co-operation  with  him  of  the 
Spirit  of  God.  These  are  first  principles  with  us ; 
and,  if  I  do  not  dwell  upon  them  so  fully  as  upon 
others  which  I  shall  presently  name,  do  not  suppose 
that  I  hold  them  to  be  less  important.  On  the  con- 
trary, they  are  of  the  greatest  moment.  They  are 
paramount  and  indispensable.  But  then,  they  are  al- 
ready recognized  as  such  by  you,  for  you  are  not  here, 
I  am  persuaded,  without  having  felt  how  essential  these 
things  are  to  the  life  and  power  of  your  ministry.  At 
all  events,  if  you  have  not  that  conviction,  the  kind- 
est thing  I  can  say  to  you  is,  *' Go  no  farther  untiP 
you  get  it." 

It  is  only  light  that  can  enlighten.  It  is  only  fire  that 
can  kindle  flame.  Hence  if  we  would  illuminate  others, 
we  must  have  light  in  ourselves;  and  if  we  would  kin- 
dle the  flame  of  piety  in  the  hearts  of  others,  we  must 

2  (2S) 


26  THE  MINISTRY  OF   THE    WORD. 

take  the  "  live  coal "  with  which  we  do  so,  from  the 
burning  "  altar  "  of  our  own  spirit.  Even  the  heathen 
poet  could  say,  "  Si  vis  me  flere  dolendum  est  priinum 
ipsi  tibiy  If  we  be  ourselves  uninterested,  how  can 
we  expect  to  interest  others?  if  we  be  ourselves  in- 
sincere, how  can  we  hope  to  bring  others  to  the  faith  ? 
if  we  be  ourselves  cold,  passionless,  and  dull,  how 
can  we  expect  to  rouse  others  to  enthusiasm  ? 

But,  even  personal  sincerity  will  not  avail  without 
the  co-operation  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  so  the  con- 
nection between  prayer  in  the  closet  and  power  in  the 
pulpit  is  of  the  closest  sort.  He  preacheth  best  who 
prayeth  best.  Prayer  is  to  the  minister  what  the  min- 
strel's music  was  to  Elisha,  it  prepares  his  soul  for  the 
descent  of  the  Holy  Ghost  upon  him,  and  where  He 
is,  there  is  power.  Hence,  the  minister  who  neglects 
prayer,  does,  in  his  sermon,  but  lay  Gehazi-like  a  cold 
staff  upon  the  face  of  the  dead ;  and  there  is  no  quicken- 
ing result.  It  is  only  when,  in  the  fullness  of  our  love 
for  souls,  and  in  the  boldness  of  our  faith  in  God, 
we,  as  it  were,  stretch  ourselves  over  them,  and 
wrestle  with  Him  on  their  behalf,  that  we  become  to 
them  the  conductors  of  new  life.  Ezekiel's  prophe- 
sying produced  a  shaking  among  the  bones,  and  an 
external  readjustment  of  them  each  to  each,  but  it 
was  the  breath  of  the  Lord  in  answer  to  his  prayer 
that  gave  them  life.  When,  therefore,  God  pours  out 
upon  the  minister  the  spirit  of  prayer,  that  is  the 
prophecy  of  a  coming  revival  in  his  church. 

These  arc  things  most  surely  believed  among  us, 
and  I  have  mentioned  them  now  only  that  I  may  pre- 


THE  PREPARATION  OF  THE  PREACHER.  2  7 

vent  them  from  being  consigned  to  what  Coleridge^ 
has  called  "  the  dormitory  of  the  soul,"  and  may  keep 
them  from  lying  bed-ridden  there  "  side  by  side  with 
the  most  exploded  errors." 

But  I  do  not  dwell  longer  upon  them  now ;  neither 
do  I  enlarge  upon  the  necessity  of  that  literary  and 
theological  training  which  it  is  the  proper  business 
of  college  and  seminary  to  furnish.  I  would  only  say, 
that  in  the  interests  of  your  future  usefulness,  you 
will  make  a  fatal  mistake  if  you  neglect  to  improve 
to  the  fullest  possible  extent  the  advantages  which 
as  students  you  here  enjoy.  Sometimes  the  tempta- 
tion may  suggest  itself  to  you,  that  as  your  main 
business  in  after-life  will  be  that  of  preaching,  you 
may  safely  put  your  present  class  duties  aside  for  the 
purpose  of  devoting  yourselves  to  preaching  engage- 
ments. But  such  ''raw  haste"  will  be  indeed  "half- 
sister  to  delay."  What  you  gain  in  the  matter  of 
practice  will  be  more  than  lost  in  that  of  efficiency. 
Of  course,  I  do  not  object  to  your  fulfilling  those 
appointments  which  may  come  in  your  way,  provided 
your  doing  so  does  not  abstract  your  attention  from 
the  work  which  you  come  here  to  perform.  Give  your 
first  care  to  the  discharge  of  the  seminary  duties. 
Fill  up  to  the  brim  the  ordinary  channel  of  your 
student-work,  and  then  let  the  overflow,  if  there  be 
any,  go  to  other  engagements.  This  will  be  the  true 
economy  in  the  end.  You  have  facilities  here,  in  the 
shape  of  libraries,  lectures,  and  advisors,  the  like  of 


"Aids  to  Reflection."     Aphorism  I. 


28  THE  MINISTRY  OF  THE   WORD. 

which  in  your  after  career  you  will  never  again  enjoy. 
Use  them,  therefore,  to  the  utmost,  and  by  doing  so, 
you  will  be  ''  laying  up  for  yourselves  in  store,  a  good 
foundation  against  the  time  to  come." 

When  you  enter  upon  the  work  itself,  you  will  find 
that  it  will  demand  all  your  time  and  energies,  and  if 
your  lot  should  be  cast,  at  length,  in  a  large  city  with 
its  ceaseless  demands  upon  you,  there  will  be  no  little 
difficulty  felt  by  you  in  securing  even  so  much  seclu- 
sion as  is  required  for  the  satisfactory  preparation  of 
your  weekly  discourses ;  therefore,  let  this  be  your 
gathering  time.  Lay  everything  in  this  institution 
under  tribute.  Get  the  most  you  possibly  can  out  of 
every  class.  Master  every  subject  that  is  brought  be- 
fore you  ;  and  especially,  master  the  original  languages 
in  which  the  Word  of  God  was  given,  so  that  you  may 
read  them,  not  with  the  stammering  hesitancy  of  one 
who  barely  knows  their  alphabets,  but  with  the  criti- 
cal appreciation  of  the  scholar  who  recognizes  the 
minutest  niceties  in  their  construction.  Continually 
do  I  find  myself  in  my  work  drawing  upon  the  sav- 
ings, if  I  may  so  express  it,  which  I  accumulated  in 
my  student-life,  and  few  regrets  have  been  so  bitter — 
alas !  that  they  are  so  unavailing — as  those  which  I  feel, 
when  I  reflect,  that  if  I  had  only  been  wiser  in  my  gener- 
ation then,  I  might  have  been  much  more  useful  and 
efficient  now.  Therefore,  though  I  presume  not  to 
enter  into  the  details  of  your  studies,  let  me,  from  my 
own  experience,  impress  upon  you  the  importance  of 
present  devotion  to  your  work  here ;  for  though 
David,  fresh  from  the  sheep-fold,  did  such  wonders 


THE  PREPARATION  OF  THE  PREACHER.         29 

with  his  sling,  every  warrior  is  not  a  David,  and  for 
the  average  of  men,  it  is  better  that  they  should  sub- 
mit to  the  drill  and  discipline  which  will  make  them 
expert  in  the  use  of  ordinary  weapons. 

But,  contenting  myself  thus  with  the  merest  refer- 
ence to  these  things,  I  would  give  special  and  pecu- 
liar emphasis  to  familiar  acquaintance  zvitJi  the  Scrip- 
tzires,  as  one  of  the  most  important  prerequisites  to 
pulpit  power.  You  are  to  be  ministers  of  the  Word  ; 
and  it  is  by  the  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures  that  you 
are  to  be  thoroughly  furnished  for  your  work.^  The 
Bible  is  your  text-book,  and  that  not  in  the  sense  of 
being  a  hunting-ground  for  texts,  but  in  that  of  con- 
stituting the  ground-work  of  your  discourses.  You 
are  looking  forward  to  be  ''  pastors  and  teachers," 
and  the  very  thing  which  you  are  to  teach  is  the 
Word  of  God.  You  are  to  lead  your  people  up  to  an 
intelligent  apprehension  of  its  meaning,  and  a  cordial 
reception  of  its  statements,  and  it  will  be  impossible 
for  you  to  do  that  if  you  are  not  yourselves  masters 
of  its  contents. 

Moreover,  the  Bible  is  the  great  instrument  of  your 
power.  The  Spirit  is  in  the  word,  as  well  as  zvith  the 
word.  It  carries  its  own  evidence  with  it,  and  in  the 
proportion  in  which  you  succeed  in  bringing  your 
hearers  face  to  face  with  its  truthful  and  unflattering 


*  See  2  Tim.  iii.  16,  17,  where  the  furniture  of  the  "  man  of 
God ''  is  said  by  Paul  to  consist  in  a  knowledge  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures. 


30 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  THE   WORD. 


mirror,  you  will  commend  your  utterances  to  their 
consciences  in  the  sight  of  God.  The  great  purpose 
of  your  office  is  to  regenerate  your  hearers,  and  the 
one  means  which  you  are  to  employ  for  this,  is  "  the 
Word  of  God  which  liveth  and  abideth  forever." 
Herein  you  differ  from  those  who  are  the  exponents 
of  a  system  of  philosophy,  and  even  from  those  who 
are  the  teachers  of  morality.  Admirably  has  Bishop 
Wilberforce  said,  "That  which  is  the  object  of  philos- 
ophy is  the  accident  of  theology.  It  does  not  aim  at 
answering  speculative  questions,  doubts,  and  difficul- 
ties, though  it  does  resolve  them.  It  reveals  the  per- 
son of  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost, 
speaking  at  once  to  the  highest  reason ;  to  that 
which  apprehends  by  faith  and  not  by  the  mere  exer- 
cise of  the  logical  faculty ;  to  the  will  in  its  most  se- 
cret recesses  ;  and  to  all  the  affections  in  their  highest 
sealed  fountains."  And  again,  "  Incidentally  it  is  the 
only  real  and  efficient  system  of  morality ;  but  it  is 
this  only  incidentally.  Moral  teaching  by  itself,  with 
no  insight  and  sanctions  from  without,  from  the  true 
fountain-head  of  all  being,  is,  amongst  a  fallen  race, 
little  better  than  mental  and  spiritual  anatomy ;  a  pur- 
blind poring  into  the  nauseous  revelations  of  disease 
and  death  ;  a  groping  darkly  into  the  mechanism  from 
which  life  has  fled.  Christianity  is  the  bringing  the 
mighty  word  of  the  Son  of  man  to  such  an  one,  and 
saying  in  the  strength  of  His  Omnipotence  to  that 
dead  corpse,  '  Young  man,  I  say  unto  thee,  arise.'  "* 

*  "  Addresses  to  Candidates  for  Ordination,"  by  the  late  Rt. 
Rev.  vSamuel  Wilberforce,  D.D.,  pp.  48,  49. 


THE  PREPARATION  OF  THE  PREACHER. 


31 


Now,  this  Christianity  is  revealed  to  us  in  the 
Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments — in  the 
former,  through  type  and  prophecy ;  and  in  the  lat- 
ter, through  history  and  exposition  ;  if,  therefore,  we 
are  to  teach  it  correctly  and  preach  it  effectively,  we 
must  be  thoroughly  acquainted  with  these  books. 
As  he  who  is  to  practice  the  healing  art  must  have, 
so  to  say,  at  his  fingers'  ends,  the  whole  principles  of 
medicine,  and  be  perfectly  familiar  with  the  nature 
and  effects  of  the  remedies  which  he  is  to  prescribe ; 
or  as  he  who  gives  himself  to  legal  pursuits,  should 
master  the  great  authorities  in  his  department ;  so 
the  preacher  of  the  gospel  should  be  like  ApoUos, 
"  mighty  in  the  Scriptures." 

Understand,  therefore,  that  I  am  not  now  pressing 
upon  you  the  duty  of  using  the  Word  of  God  for  the 
purpose  of  fostering  habits  of  devotion  in  your  own 
souls ;  though  that,  of  course,  you  will  not  neglect. 
Neither  am  I  enforcing  upon  you  the  importance  of 
having  your  memories  stored  with  its  words,  so  that 
they  may  come  at  your  bidding  to  strengthen  and 
adorn  your  pulpit  discourses.  I  am  urging  you  to 
the  systematic  and  continuous  study  of  its  books, 
that  you  may  thoroughly  familiarize  yourselves  with 
those  truths  in  the  proclamation  of  which  your  life- 
work  is  to  consist.  I  wish  you  to  have  your  minds 
so  saturated  with  its  spirit,  that  the  first  and  most 
natural  view  you  will  take  of  any  subject,  will  be  the 
Biblical. 

Form  your  system  of  theology  from  its  pages.  You 
cannot  get  on  without  having  in  your  minds  some 


32 


THE  MINISTR  V  OF   THE   WORD. 


systematic  view  of  religious  truth ;  but  go  to  your 
system  through  the  Bible,  and  beware  of  reading  the 
Bible  merely  through  the  spectacles  of  system.  Be 
the  slaves  of  no  system  ;  but  be  always  the  docile 
disciples  of  the  Word  of  God.  That  was  an  all-im- 
portant distinction  which  Whately  drew,  when  he 
said :  V  A  desire  to  have  Scripture  on  our  side,  is  one 
thing;  the  desire  to  be  on  the  side  of  Scripture  is 
quite  another."  Be  it  yours  to  find  out  which  is  the 
side  of  Scripture,  and  determine  always  to  take  that. 
Mark  very  carefully  the  perspective  in  which  it  places 
different  truths,  and  when  you  preach .  these  truths, 
be  sure  always  to  put  them  in  the  same  relative  posi- 
tion as  that  in  which  you  found  them  in  its  pages. 

Read  it  as  a  whole,  that  you  may  have  a  compre- 
hensive survey  of  its  contents.  Read  it  inductively, 
that  you  may  gather  together  into  so  many  different 
centres  all  its  utterances  on  particular  matters  of 
doctrine  or  duty.  *  Read  it  book  by  book,  that  you 
may  discover  the  drift  and  purpose  of  each  separate 
contribution  which,  under  the  guidance  of  the  Spirit, 
each  writer  has  made  to  its  aggregate  unity.  Resolve 
that  whatever  else  you  read  or  leave  unread,  you  will 


*  As  specimens  of  the  kind  of  induction  to  which  I  here  refer, 
let  me  mention  the  works  of  Smeaton  and  Crawford  on  the  Atone- 
ment ;  and  as  treating  the  same  subject  in  a  similar  manner,  but 
on  a  different  principle  of  classification,  the  recent  volume  of  Mr. 
Dale,  of  Birming-ham.  In  this  connection,  also,  I  would  direct 
attention  to  some  of  the  sermons  of  Thomas  Binney,  in  the  vol- 
ume entitled  "  Sermons  preached  in  the  King's  Weigh-house 
Chapel,  London,  1 829-1 869."     Macmillan  &  Co.,  1869. 


THE  PREPARATION  OF  THE  PREACHER.         33 

at  least  master  that  which  is  for  you  professionally, 
as  well  as  experimentally,  THE  BOOK.  And  never 
imagine  that  you  have  perfectly  possessed  yourselves 
of  all  its  treasures ;  for,  ever  as  you  grow  in  intellec- 
tual vigor  and  in  Christian  experience,  you  will  find 
that  you  have  grown  into  the  capacity  of  discovering 
just  so  much  the  more  in  its  treatises  and  narratives, 
its  sermons  and  its  songs. 

When  I  was  a  student  of  theology,  a  cursory  remark 
dropped  by  one  of  my  beloved  tutors,  to  the  effect 
that  ^'  we  read  far  too  much  about  the  Bible,  and  far 
too  little  in  the  Bible,"  was  for  me  a  word  in  season. 
It  set  me  to  such  study  of  the  Scriptures  as  I  am  now 
enforcing  upon  you,  and  if  God  has  given  me  any 
measure  of  usefulness  in  my  ministry,  not  a  little  of 
it  has  been  due  to  my  determination  to  become  '^  well- 
instructed  in  the  oracles  of  God."  Other  attainments 
were  beyond  my  reach.  I  had  not  the  means  of  pur- 
suing studies  in  many  departments  which  were  open 
to  my  more  fortunate  contemporaries ;  but  this  was 
at  my  hand,  and  so  I  gave  myself  to  it,  and  for  years 
I  have  been  in  the  habit  of  gauging  my  mental  growth 
by  the  clearer  apprehension  which  I  have  gained  of 
some  portion  of  the  Scriptures,  than  I  had  at  the 
time  when  it  was  last  under  my  consideration. 

You  will  see,  therefore,  that  the  acquaintance  with 
the  Word  of  God  which  I  am  recommending  to  you, 
is  not  that  of  the  letter  merely.  I  do  not  mean  that 
you  are  to  become  such  prodigies  of  memory,  that  if 
the  whole  Bible  were  to  be  destroyed,  you  could  easily 
restore  it.     Neither  do  I  wish  you  to  be  walking  con- 


34  THE  MINISTRY  OF    THE    WORD. 

cordances,  able  at  a  moment's  notice  to  give  the  chap- 
ter and  the  verse  of  every  quotation  that  may  be 
made  in  your  hearing.  What  I  desire  is,  that  you 
should  become  as  familiar  with  its  modes  of  present- 
ing the  truth,  as  you  are  with  the  text-books  of  your 
classes.  And  if  you  will  be  advised  from  my  expe- 
rience, I  would  urge  you  to  make  your  study  of  it 
at  first  hand,  and  for  yourselves.  You  will  find  many 
hand-books  offered  for  your  assistance,  and  many 
analyses  of  its  teachings  pressed  upon  your  attention. 
But,  in  the  first  instance  at  least,  make  your  own. 
For  while  you  are  prosecuting  your  investigation  for 
one  purpose,  you  will  incidentally,  and  by  the  way, 
pick  up  a  great  many  valuable  things  which  other- 
wise you  might  never  have  seen.  Besides,  that  which 
you  discover  for  yourself,  remains  with  you  a  perrna- 
nent  possession,  while  that  which  you  take  ready- 
made  from  the  labors  of  another,  is  very  speedily 
forgotten.  ''  Search  the  Scriptures  "  then,  my  young 
brethren.  It  is  an  old  injunction,  but  it  is  as  impor- 
tant now  as  it  was  centuries  ago.  "  Read,  mark,  learn, 
and  inwardly  digest "  them,  and  you  will  grow  into  an 
efficiency  as  preachers  which  you  could  not  otherwise 
acquire. 

Not  without  its  lesson  in  this  regard  is  that  mar- 
velous spiritual  movement  which  within  the  last  two 
years  has  stirred  Great  Britain  to  its  depths,  as  it  has 
never  been  since  the  days  of  Whitefield  and  the  Wes- 
leys,  and  which  has  begun  under  the  same  instrumen- 
tality in  our  own  land.  Here  are  plain,  unlettered 
men,  in  many  respects  open  to  criticism  in  their  meth- 


THE  PREPARATION  OF  THE  PREACHER.  35 

ods,  yet  blessed  to  the  revival  of  multitudes,  and  to 
the  conversion  of  still  greater  numbers ;  and  when 
you  come  to  analyze  their  power — so  far  as  it  can  be 
submitted  to  mere  human  analysis — much  of  it  is 
found  to  consist  in  the  fact,  that  they  are  skilled  in 
the  use  of  that  Word  of  God,  which  is  ''  quick  and 
powerful,  sharper  than  any  two-edged  sword,  piercing 
even  to  the  dividing  asunder  of  soul  and  spirit,  and 
of  the  joints  and  marrow,  and  is  a  discerner  of  the 
thoughts  and  intents  of  the  hearts."  *  Let  us  learn 
from  their  example.  Let  us  not  prefer  the  "wisdom 
of  words  "  to  its  words  of  wisdom.  Let  us  teach  our 
people  to  bow  before  its  utterances,  by  the  rever- 
ence which  we  ourselves  manifest  in  its  treatment. 
Yea,  let  us  recognize  the  signs  of  the  times  in  this 
particular,  and  as  everywhere  the  people  are  hunger- 
ing for  the  Word,  and  do  eagerly  welcome  it  when  it 
is  faithfully  and  lovingly  expounded  to  them,  let  us 
furnish  ourselves  for  the  demand  that  is  thus  made 
upon  us,  by  gathering  daily  of  its  heavenly  manna. 

Another  prerequisite  to  success  in  the  pulpit  is  a 
good  hwwledge  of  the  Jiuman  heart.  The  physician 
must  understand,  not  merely  the  nature  of  the  reme- 
dies which  he  is  to  employ,  but  also  the  symptoms 
and  workings  of  the  diseases  which  he  desires  to  cure. 
He  must  ''walk  the  hospitals"  as  well  as  study  the 
pharmacopeia.  Now,  the  gospel  is  a  remedial  meas- 
ure, and  therefore  it  is  essential  that  its  preachers 


Hebrews  iv.  12. 


36  THE  MINISTRY  OF   THE    WORD. 

should  be  acquainted  with  the  nature  of  man,  as  well 
as  with  the  means  which,  as  the  instrument  in  the 
hands  of  God's  spirit,  he  is  to  use  for  its  transforma- 
tion and  renewal.  Hence,  he  who  wishes  to  become 
an  efficient  minister,  will  be  a  diligent  student  of  men. 
Begin  here  with  yourselves ;  for  "  as  face  answereth 
to  face  in  a  glass,  so  doth  the  heart  of  man  to  man." 
There  are  distinctive  peculiarities,  indeed,  in  each 
individual,  but  in  their  great  outstanding  characteris- 
tics, men  everywhere  are  very  much  alike.  Therefore 
you  may  safely  take  it  for  granted,  that  what  you  find 
in  your  own  hearts,  exists  also  in  those  of  others.  The 
burden  of  guilt  which  weighed  so  heavily  on  your 
consciences,  will  be  found  pressing  also  upon  theirs, 
if  only  you  can  succeed  in  bringing  them  to  that 
knowledge  of  God's  law  by  which  you  were  awakened 
to  a  sense  of  your  sinfulness.  The  blood  of  Christ 
which  cleansed  you  from  your  iniquities,  will  be  as 
efficacious  also  in  their  cases,  if  they  will  apply  it  to 
themselves  in  simple  faith.  The  struggle  which  you 
have  continually  to  carry  on  with  the  evil  principles 
that  are  yet  within  you,  must  be  maintained  also  by 
them,  and  whatever  is  felt  by  you  to  be  helpful  in 
that  holy  war,  will  be  welcomed,  you  may  be  sure,  by 
them.  The  besetments  which  encircle  you,  will  in 
some  form  or  other  environ  them ;  the  weaknesses 
which  3^ou  feel  so  frequently,  and  in  consequence  of 
which  you  yield  so  often  to  temptation,  will  be  felt 
by  them  ;  and  whatever  has  been  to  you  the  means 
of  revival,  will  certainly  prove  restorative  to  them. 
The  limitations  within  which  you  have  to  carry  on 


THE  PREPARATION  OF  THE  PREACHER. 


37 


your  labor  on  the  earth,  and  which  mar  so  much  the 
symmetry  and  completeness  of  your  work,  will  be 
similar  to  those  which  they  have  often  felt  so  galling 
to  them,  and  everything  which  has  tended  to  sustain 
and  comfort  you  under  your  humiliation,  will  be 
ecjually  valuable  to  them.  They  have  their  unsettle- 
ments  and  trials  in  life  just  as  you  have ;  they  have 
their  emptyings  from  "vessel  to  vessel"  just  as  you 
have ;  they  have  their  sorrows,  and  sicknesses,  and 
bereavements  just  as  you  have ;  and  by  telling  them 
how  you  have  been  upborne,  you  "  may  be  able  to 
comfort  them  that  are  in  any  trouble,  by  the  comfort 
wherewith  you  yourselves  are  comforted  of  God."  "^ 

Tljus  alike  in  the  matter  of  warning  and  in  that  of 
consolation,  you  will  find  that  a  strict  watch  over  your 
own  hearts  and  histories  will  give  you  signal  power. 
The  conflict  with,  and  conquest  over,  one  single  bosom 
sin,  will  give  you  here  an  influence  which  you  will 
seek  in  vain  from  any  other  quarter.  Peter  could 
never  have  written  his  first  Epistle,  which  is  so  full 
of  comfort  to  them  who  "  are  in  heaviness  through 
manifold  temptations,"  if  he  had  not  himself  known 
what  it  was  to  hang  through  days  of  darkness  on 
the  memory  of  his  Master's  loving  look.  And  those 
are  ever  the  most  effective  preachers  to  others  who 
are  speaking  from  their  knowledge  of  their  own  hearts. 

On  the  day  on  which  I  was  licensed  as  a  preacher 
of  the  gospel,  my  father,  who  was  then  suffering  from 
the  disease  of  which  he  died,  repeated  to  me  a  sen- 


2  Corinthians  i.  4. 


38  THE  MINISTRY  OF   THE    WORD. 

tence  which  fifty  years  before  he  had  heard  in  the 
charge  given  at  an  ordination  by  an  old  pastor  to 
the  newly-installed  minister.  It  was  to  this  effect : 
^'  Preach  to  the  hearts  of  your  hearers,  and  that  you 
may  do  that  effectively,  examine  well  your  own  heart, 
and  whatever  you  find  there,  charge  home  upon  them." 
Perhaps  the  circumstances  in  which  this  advice  was 
repeated  to  me,  tended  to  give  it  more  importance 
than  it  really  deserves.  Yet,  I  am  free  to  say,  that  it 
has  very  seldom  been  absent  from  my  thoughts  when 
I  have  been  preparing  for  the  pulpit ;  and  sometimes, 
when  some  one  of  my  hearers  has  alleged  that  I  was 
preaching  most  pointedly  at  him,  I  was,  in  reality, 
preaching  most  solemnly  to  myself;  while  on  other 
occasions,  I  have  been  made  the  messenger  of  conso- 
lation to  many,  when  I  was  seeking  most  earnestly 
for  my  own  comfort. 

The  poet  has  said  that  "  one  touch  of  nature  makes 
the  whole  world  akin,"  and  a  minister  thrills  his  hear- 
ers most  when  they  feel  his  nature  touching  theirs. 
There  is  something  in  the  eye  of  a  well-painted  por- 
trait which  makes  every  beholder  think  that  it  is 
looking  at  him,  and  that  no  matter  at  what  point  he 
stands.  Now,  this  speaking  from  his  own  heart  will 
give  a  similar  power  to  the  sermon  of  the  preacher, 
and  will  make  every  hearer  feel  that  it  was  meant  for 
him.  Know  yourselves,  then,  and  use  that  knowledge 
as  a  key  for  opening  the  hearts  of  others  to  your 
words.  Let  your  own  hearts  and  consciences  always 
form  a  portion  of  your  audience,  and  if  you  are  af- 
fected, others  will  be  also. 


THE  PREPARA  TION  OF  THE  PRE  A  CHER.         30 

Have  you  observed  how  when  God  has  called  His 
greatest  servants  to  some  signal  service,  He  has  be- 
gun by  giving  them  a  thorough  revelation  of  them- 
selves, through  the  unveiling  of  Himself  to  them  ? 
Now  it  is  Moses*  at  the  burning  bush,  and  when  he 
has  discovered  his  imperfections,  the  commission  is 
given,  "  Go,  and  I  will  be  with  thy  mouth  and  teach 
thee  what  thou  shalt  say."  Now  it  is  Gideon  f  at 
the  threshing-floor,  and  when  he  has  said,  "  O  my 
Lord,  wherewith  shall  I  save  Israel,  behold  my  fam- 
ily is  poor  in  Manasseh,  and  I  am  the  least  in  my 
father's  house ;"  he  is  then  in  a  fit  state  to  receive 
the  command,  ''  Go,  in  this  thy  might."  Now  it  is 
Isaiah:};  in  the  Temple  filled  with  the  glory  of  Jeho- 
vah, and  when  he  has  found  out  that  he  is  ''  a  man 
of  unclean  lips,"  and  has  received  purification  by  fire 
from  the  altar,  he  is  ready  to  offer  himself  to  the  call 
of  the  Lord,  with  the  words  of  dedication,  "  Here  am 
I,  send  me!"  Now  it  is  Peter,  §  on  the  shore  of 
Gennesaret,  seeing  the  glory  of  the  Lord  through 
the  miracle  of  the  fishes,  and  crying,  "  Depart  from 
me,  for  I  am  a  sinful  man,  O  Lord,"  and  then  he  is 
prepared  for  the  reassuring  words,  "  Fear  not,  from 
henceforth  thou  shalt  catch  men."  The  knowledge 
of  his  own  heart,  through  and  along  with  an  experi- 
mental acquaintance  with  Christ  —  tJicse  are  the 
mightiest  elements  of  the  preacher's  power.  I  have 
seen  a  housemaid  in  one  of  our  great  hotels,  take  a 


*  Exodus  iv.  10.  t  Judges  vi.  11-15. 

X  Isaiah  vi.  1-8.  §  Luke  v.  1-16. 


40 


THE  MINISTRY  OF    THE    WORD. 


skeleton-key  and  pass  into  every  chamber  in  a  spa- 
cious corridor,  laying  open  the  contents  of  each,  and 
setting  to  work  on  its  purification.  Now,  such  a  skele- 
ton-key is  the  knowledge  of  his  own  heart  to  the 
minister  of  Christ.  It  enables  him  to  unlock  the 
hearts  of  his  hearers  and  enter  into  them,  and  turn 
out  their  hklden  things,  so  that  they  cry,  "  Who  told 
him  all  that  ?  he  seems  to  be  reading  out  the  inner- 
most secrets  of  my  soul."  Who  told  him?  It  was 
Jesus,  in  the  day  when  His  divine  light  flashed  into 
his  soul,  and  let  him  see  himself! 

But  in  this  matter  of  the  knowledge  of  human  nat- 
ure, you  will  also  gain  much  advantage  from  the 
study  of  the  biographies  which  the  Word  of  God  con- 
tains. The  history  of  the  first  temptation  is  repeated 
in  every  enticement  to  sin  still,  and  the  weaknesses 
even  of  such  men  as  Abraham  and  Moses,  Aaron  and 
Elijah,  Peter  and  Thomas,  are  continually  reappear- 
ing among  ourselves.  Everywhere  we  may  find  those 
who,  like  Balaam, ''  love  the  wages  of  unrighteousness," 
while  they  seek  to  obey  the  letter  of  the  divine  pre- 
cept. Daily  we  are  meeting  with  men  whose  great 
difficulty,  when  we  urge  them  to  a  certain  course,  is 
that  of  the  Jewish  king,  who  said  to  the  man  of  God, 
''  But  what  shall  we  do  for  the  hundred  talents  which 
I  have  given  to  the  army  of  Israel?"''^'  and  the  class 
whom  Demetrius  so  moved  when  he  said,  ''  Sir,  ye 
know  that  .by  this  craft  we  have  our  wealth, "f  is  not 
by  any  means  extinct  among  us.   There  are  too  many 


*  2  Chron.  xxv.  9.  t  Acts  xix.  25. 


THE  PREPARATION  OF  THE  PREACHER.         ^j 

still  like  Herod,^  who  are  'Wery  sorry,  yet,"  for  the 
sake  of  some  fancied  obligation  to  party,  or  to  prom- 
ise, go  and  do  what  their  consciences  condemn.  We 
have  yet  our  DiotrepheseSjf  who  '^  love  to  have  the 
pre-eminence  among  the  brethren,"  as  well  as  our 
Aquilas  and  Priscillas,  who  are  our  ''  helpers  in  Christ 
Jesus."  But  why  need  I  enumerate  individual  in- 
stances ?  You  will  find  in  the  characters  described  in 
the  Bible  representatives  of  every  phase  of  human  nat- 
ure presently  existing  among  ourselves,  and  so,  if 
you  wish  to  furnish  yourselves  fully  for  dealing  with 
men  in  the  momentous  matter  of  the  salvation  of 
their  souls,  you  will  study  well  the  portrait  gallery  of 
the  Book  of  God. 

Let  each  biography  here  be  to  you  a  matter  of  sep- 
arate analysis,  and  let  each  character  be  regarded  by 
you  as  the  type  of  a  class,  specimens  of  which  you  are 
sure  to  meet  with  in  your  after  lives.  This  will  prepare 
you  for  the  actual  work  of  the  ministry,  not  only  by 
suggesting  to  you  fruitful  themes  for  your  public  dis- 
courses, but  also  by  familiarizing  you  with  the  doub- 
lings and  deceitfulnesses  of  that  human  heart,  with 
which,  as  the  preachers  of  the  Gospel,  you  will  have 
especially  to  do. 

In  this  department,  also,  you  may  be  greatly  bene- 
fited by  the  diligent  study  of  the  characters  which 
are  described  in  human  literature.  The  pages  of  his- 
tory will  give  you  ample  materials  for  coming  to  a 
decision  as  to  the  motives  by  which  men  in  general 


*  Mark  vi.  26.  t  3  John  9  ;  Romans  xvi.  3. 


42 


THE   MINISTRY  OF   THE    WORD. 


are  actuated ;  for  though  the  transactions  which  are 
there  described  are  larger  and  more  important  than 
those  in  which  the  average  of  mankind  are  engaged, 
yet  the  principles  by  which  they  who  took  part  in 
them  were  animated,  are  the  same  as  those  which  are 
acted  upon  by  the  majority  of  men  in  the  ordinary 
affairs  of  life. 

But  better,  perhaps,  than  any  history,  for  the  end 
which  I  am  now  setting  before  you,  are  the  dramatic 
works  of  Shakespeare.  To  them,  I,  at  least,  must  ac- 
knowledge my  obligations,  in  the  most  emphatic 
manner.  They  came  into  my  hands  during  my  sec- 
ond session  at  the  University  of  Glasgow,  and  opened 
up  what  was  virtually  a  new  world  to  me.  For  more 
than  two  years  I  devoted  to  them  every  minute  of  my 
leisure  time.  I  read  them  not  for  the  sake  of  the 
stories  which  they  told,  or  the  plots  which  they  unrav- 
elled, but  for  the  insight  which  they  gave  me  into  the 
workings  of  the  human  heart,  I  was  especially  fas- 
cinated with  those  plays  which  manifest  the  power 
of  conscience ;  and  long  before  I  knew  of  the  writ- 
ings of  Schlegel  and  Coleridge,  I  had  made  for  myself 
an  analysis  of  the  characters  of  Macbeth,  Richard  III., 
Brutus,  Hamlet,  lago,  and  others.  The  productions 
were  crude  enough,  no  doubt ;  yet,  the  mere  attempt 
at  such  work  was  valuable  to  me  beyond  most 
other  things ;  and  to  this  day  I  look  back  with  no  or- 
dinary pleasure  on  the  hours  which  I  spent  in  such  a 
delightful  manner. 

It  is  not  without  a  measure  of  trepidation,  indeed, 
that  I  venture  to  mention  this,  for  I  have  still  vividly 


THE  PREPARATION  OF  THE  PREACHER.  a  7 

before  my  mind  the  consternation  of  my  father,  a 
worthy  elder  in  the  Presbyterian  Church,  when  he 
discovered  the  nature  of  my  studies  at  that  time. 
Sitting  up  one  evening  until  far  past  midnight  at  my 
favorite  pursuits,  I  happened  to  burst  into  a  long, 
loud  laugh  over  a  ludicrous  passage  which  I  was  read- 
ing, and  to  make  some  noise  by  the  movement  of  my 
chair.  This  disturbed  my  venerable  parent  in  his 
slumbers,  for  my  room  was  immediately  over  his,  and 
in  a  few  minutes  I  was  confronted  with  the  vision  of 
a  man  in  white,  who,  on  finding  out  how  I  was  en- 
gaged, very  gravely  said  to  me,  "  My  man,  if  you  are 
going  to  preach  Christ's  Gospel,  you  had  better  be 
doing  something  else  at  this  time  in  the  morning  than 
reading  a  play-actor's  books."  I  fear,  therefore,  lest 
some  exemplary  Christian  people  may  think  that  I  am 
giving  you  perilous  advice,  when  I  recommend  you  to 
make  yourselves  familiarly  acquainted  with  the  char- 
acters which  the  great  dramatist  has  so  powerfully 
depicted.  But  I  am  reassured  when  I  remember  that 
if  I  err  here,  I  err  in  good  company,  since  I  find  that 
Dr.  Guthrie  wrote,  "  I  never  tire  of  reading  Shakes- 
peare. I  have  always  considered  him  the  greatest  unin- 
spired genius  that  ever  lived  ;  and  I  remember  how  glad 
I  was  when  reading  the  biography  of  Dr.  Chalmers,  to 
find  that  he  was  of  the  same  mind."'''^  In  spite,  there- 
fore, of  the  prejudice  which  many  friends  entertain 
against   the   class   of  works  to  which   Shakespeare's 


*  Autobiography  and  Memoir  of  Thomas  Guthrie,  D.D.     Vol. 
II.,  p.  310. 


44  THE  MINISTRY  OF   THE    WORD. 

writings  belong,  I  would  urge  you  to  make  a  study 
of  these  noble  productions,  for  though  occasionally 
you  will  meet  with  some  things  which  indicate  that 
according  to  his  own  plaintive  confession,  his  nature 
had  become  '■'  subdued  to  that  it  wrought  in,  like  the 
dyer's  hand."*  Yet  every  candid  critic  must  agree 
with  Sir  James  Stephens  when  he  says,t  "  In  his  soul, 
as  in  a  mirror,  were  concentrated  all  the  lights  radiat- 
ing from  every  point  of  human  observation,  and  from 
his  soul  as  from  a  mirror  these  lights  were  reflected 
back  in  every  possible  combination  of  beauty  and 
sublimity,  of  wisdom  and  wit,  of  pathos  and  humor." 
But  while  you  avail  yourselves  of  all  these  means  of 
acquiring  a  knowledge  of  human  nature,  do  not 
forget  to  mingle  much  among  men  themselves. 
Keep  your  eyes  and  ears  open  wherever  you  are, 
whether  in  the  streets,  or  in  the  cars,  in  the  ex- 
change, in  the  stores,  or  in  the  household,  and  be 
closely  observant  of  everything  which  indicates 
or  illustrates  character.  Seek  to  become  acquaint- 
ed with  persons  in  every  profession  and  pursuit, 
and  study  especially  the  temptations  to  which  they 
are  most  open,  and  the  weaknesses  which  they  most 
commonly  manifest  in  their  ordinary  avocations. 
Beware,  however,  of  prosecuting  such  investigations 
in  a  spirit  of  cynicism  like  that  which  comes  out  in 
the  pages  of  Vanity  Fair ;  or  with  a  view  to  the  pro- 


*  See  his  cxi.  Sonnet. 

t  Lecture  on  Desultory  and  Systematic  Reading-,  by  the  Rt. 
Hon.  Sir  James  Stephens,  p.  25. 


•  THE  PREPARATION  OF  THE  PREACHER.         45 

duction  of  such  comic  effects  as  those  which  have 
made  the  cartoons  of  PitncJi  so  famous.  You  stand 
upon  a  higher  platform  than  that  of  the  morahst  or 
the  satirist.  Your  mission  is  to  be  the  helpers  of 
your  fellow-men  into  the  life  of  peace  and  purity 
which  Christ  has  revealed  to  them  and  made  possible 
for  them,  and  therefore  all  your  observations  must  be 
made  with  a  benevolence  like  that  which  "  stirred  " 
the  spirit  of  the  apostle  when  he  passed  through  the 
streets  of  Athens,  and  marked  how  the  city  was 
"  wholly  given  to  idolatry,"*  and  with  the  view  of 
leading  them  as  he  did,  from  the  very  inscriptions  on 
their  own  idol-altars,  up  to  the  knowledge  of  the  Lord 
Jesus. 

We  can  never  hope  to  reach  the  excellence  of  the 
Redeemer  Himself,  yet  it  may  not  be  irreverent  to 
say  here,  that  one  of  the  sources  of  His  power  as  a 
preacher,  lay  in  the  fact  that  "  He  knew  what  was  in 
men."  f  He  had  "  the  tongue  of  the  learned  "  that 
He  should ''  know  how  to  speak  a  word  in  season  to  him 
that  is  weary."  X  Hence,  there  was  a  perfect  adaptation 
in  His  words  to  the  characters  and  circumstances  of  His 
hearers.  To  some  He  would  not  fully  "  commit  Him- 
self;" and  He  had  one  way  of  presenting  His  message 
to  the  formal  Pharisee,  and  another  to  the  weeping 
penitent.  He  brought  the  same  salvation  to  the  ruler 
Nicodemus,  and  to  the  woman  at  the  well  of  Sychar, 
but  He  approached  each  in  the  way  that  was  best 
suited  to  gain  His  end  with  each ;  while  in  His  public 


*  Acts  xvii.  16.         t  John  ii.  24,  25.         X  Isaiah  1.  4. 


^6  THE   MINISTRY  OF   THE    WORD. 

addresses  He  rose  with  perfect  naturalness  from  the 
occupations  of  men's  daily  lives  to  the  contemplation 
of  things  unseen  and  eternal.  He  called  men  at  the 
receipt  of  customs  to  ''  follow  "  Him,  and  they  obeyed 
by  leaving  their  occupations  and  attending  Him 
through  His  journeyings.  It  is  ours  to  go  to  them  still  in 
their  business  pursuits,  and  persuade  them  to  follow 
Him,  while  yet  they  sit  at  their  accustomed  work.  So 
the  nearer  we  can  attain  to  that  acquaintance  with  the 
human  heart  which  He  possessed,  the  more  effective 
ever  will  be  our  appeals.  In  Him  that  knowledge 
was  the  omniscience  of  godhead,  but  in  us  it  must  be 
laboriously  acquired  by  the  observation  of  our  fellows. 

To  this  then,  gentlemen,  give  yourselves  with  all  your 
earnestness.  There  is  a  way  to  every  man's  heart  if 
you  can  only  find  it.  Study  him,  therefore,  until  you 
discover  it,  and  then  enter  in  by  it,  and  take  posses- 
sion of  him  for  your  Lord.  Let  him  feel  and  know- 
that  you  come  to  assist  him  in  his  conflict  with  him- 
self; that  you  are  in  alliance  with  those  aspirations 
after  something  higher  and  nobler  than  he  is,  which 
are  the  strongest  yearnings  of  his  heart ;  that  you 
are  desirous  of  helping  him  to  withstand  those  tempta- 
tions with  which  every  day  he  has  to  contend,  and 
you  will  gain  not  his  ear  only,  but  his  heart,  almost 
before  he  is  aware  of  it. 

On  my  way  to  the  pulpit,  and  as  a  means  of  self- 
help,  I  spent  a  year  in  the  editorial  chair  of  a  news- 
paper ;  and  I  question  if  any  of  my  college  classes 
was  more  valuable  to  me,  so  far  as  my  after  life-work 
has  been  concerned,  than  the  experience  of  dealing 


THE  PREPARATION  OF  THE  PREACHER.         ^y 

with  men  which  I  then  obtained.  If  anybody  wants 
to  know  human  nature,  all  round,  within  and  with- 
out, and  through  and  through,  let  him  be  for  a  time 
the  editor  of  a  newspaper  !  and  if,  as  was  the  case 
with  me,  a  contested  election  should  happen  to  occur 
during  his  term  of  office,  he  will  have  ample  oppor- 
tunity of  studying  every  variety  of  character  ! 

I  was  helped  in  this  department  also,  by  some  time 
devoted  to  public  teaching,  a  work  in  which  the 
monotony  of  the  class  was  varied  by  watching  the 
peculiarities  of  the  children,  and  sometimes,  too,  by 
the  opportunity  it  gave  of  insight  into  the  petty  am- 
bitions and  schemings  of  the  parents.  And  though 
these  observations  were  made  in  another  land,  I  have 
not  found  that  human  nature  in  New  York  is  differ- 
ent from  that  which  manifests  itself  in  Scotland. 

My  advice  to  you  in  this  matter,  then,  my  young 
brethren,  is  that  you  should  avail  yourselves  of  every 
opportunity  which  offers  itself,  in  your  various  en- 
gagements, for  the  study  of  your  fellow-men.  Be 
always  taking  notes,  without  seeming  to  do  so,  and 
let  the  results  of  your  observations  shape  your  public 
discourses.  It  makes  little  or  no  difference  how  you 
acquire  it  ;  only  somehow  get  a  knowledge  of  your 
fellows,  so  that  when  you  preach  to  them,  you  shall 
not  seem  to  them  like  "  one  who  beateth  the  air," 
but  may  speak  as  one  who  knows  the  difficulties  with 
which  they  have  to  contend,  and  the  dangers  by 
which  they  are  environed.  "  When  I  listen  to  some 
preachers,"  said  a  ship-builder  on  the  Tyne  once,  to  a 
minister  of  my  acquaintance,  ''  I   can  build   a  whole 


48  THE  MINISTRY  OF    THE    WORD. 

ship ;  but  this  morning  I  declare  I  could  not  lay  a 
single  plate."  "  How  was  that  ?  "  asked  my  friend. 
*'  Because,"  was  the  reply,  ^'  you  spoke  like  one  who 
knew  just  what  I  needed,  and  I  could  not  withdraw 
my  attention  from  you  for  a  moment."  That  is  the 
sort  of  sermons  which  a  knowledge  of  human  nature 
and  daily  life,  rightly  applied,  will  enable  you  to 
preach,  and  which  you  ought  always  to  try  to  preach. 
For  I  do  not  think  that  merchants,  or  indeed,  for  that 
matter,  any  class  of  busy,  struggling  men  or  women, 
receive  nearly  as  much  sympathy,  encouragement,  or 
assistance  from  the  pulpit  as  they  ought.  The  dis- 
courses they  hear  may  be  good  enough  as  theological 
discussions,  or  as  moral  essays,  or  as  beautiful  illus- 
trations of  some  little  facet  of  truth,  but  they  do  not, 
nearly  so  often  as  they  should,  touch  the  inner  his- 
tories and  experiences  of  men,  living  as  we  are  doing 
now,  and  the  reason  is  because  the  preacher  is  too 
frequently  a  respectable  recluse,  knowing  little  or 
nothing  of  the  battle  which  human  souls  are  daily 
fighting,  in  their  homes,  in  the  streets,  or  in  their 
stores.  Study  men,  therefore.  Find  out  the  "  weights" 
by  which  they  are  hindered  in  their  daily  race,  and 
the  dangers  to  which  they  are  most  liable.  Then 
preach  so  that  the  wave  of  your  speech  shall  flow  into 
their  hearts  and  lift  them  up  above  the  sandbanks  on 
which  the  work  of  the  week  had  left  them  stranded, 
and  you  will  never  be  without  their  attention.  Nay, 
as  the  week  advances,  they  will  long  for  the  recurrence 
of  the  Sabbath  that  they  may  be  strengthened  through 
your  ministry   once    more,   and  when  the  service  is 


THE  PREPARATION  OF  THE  PREACHER.         Ag 

ended  they  will  retire  with  the  feeling  that  in  spite 
of  the  down-dragging  influences  that  are  depressing 
them,  there  is  something  worth  striving  for  after  all, 
and  with  the  resolution  that  they  will  begin  anew  to 
live  for  Christ. 

It  is  true,  indeed,  that  as  ministers,  you  will  be  your- 
selves removed  from  the  sphere  of  many  of  the  diffl 
culties  with  which  men  in  business  have  to  contend  ; 
but  your  very  exemption  from  these  will  enable  you 
the  better  to  help  them,  provided  you  know  enough 
about  them.  As  described  by  Mr.  MacGregor,  in  one 
of  his  "  Rob  Roy  "  books,*  the  process  of  adjusting 
the  compasses  on  board  ship  in  the  river  Thames,  is 
something  like  this  :  The  vessel  is  moored  in  the 
bight  at  Greenhithe,  and  by  means  of  warps  to  cer- 
tain government  buoys,  she  is  placed  with  her  head 
towards  the  various  points  of  the  compass,  one  after 
another.  The  bearing  of  her  compass  on  board,  in- 
fluenced as  that  is  by  the  attraction  of  the  iron  she 
carries,  is  taken  accurately  by  one  observer  in  the 
vessel,  and  the  true  bearing  is  signalled  to  him  by 
another  observer  on  shore,  who  has  a  compass  out  of 
reach  of  the  local  attraction  of  the  ship.  The  error 
in  each  position  is  thus  ascertained,  and  the  necessary 
corrections  are  made.  Now  in  the  church  your  people 
are  like  that  observer  on  board  ship.  Their  con- 
sciences have  been  all  the  week  affected  by  the  in- 
fluence of  things  immediately  around  them,  so  that 

*  The  reference  is  to  "  The  Voyage  Alone  In  The  Yawl  Rob 
Roy,"  but  I  have  not  the  volume  at  hand  and  cannot  quote  the 
page. 

3 


50  THE  MINISTRY  OF  THE   WORD. 

they  are  in  danger  of  making  serious  mistakes  even 
in  their  reading  of  the  book  of  God.  But  in  the  pul- 
pit, you  are  like  the  observer  on  shore.  You  are 
away  from  the  magnetic  agencies — mostly  metallic — 
which  so  seriously  affect  them,  therefore  you  can  signal- 
ize to  them  their  "  true  bearings,"  and  thus  prepare 
them  for  the  voyage  of  the  week  that  is  to  follow.  You 
can  read  the  directions  of  God's  Word  with  an  un- 
biased mind,  while  from  your  acquaintance  with  their 
circumstances,  you  will  know  what  directions  they 
need  for  their  daily  guidance.  Get  such  a  knowledge, 
my  young  brethren,  on  the  one  hand  of  the  book  of 
God,  and  on  the  other  of  the  characters  and  sur- 
roundings of  men,  as  will  enable  you  thus  to  be  of 
service  to  them,  just  where  they  are,  and  you  may 
be  sure  that  you  will  always  have  numerous,  inter- 
ested, and  grateful  hearers. 


LECTURE    III. 

THE  PREPARATION  OF  THE  PREACHER — CONTINUED. 


LECTURE    III. 

THE  PREPARATION   OF  THE  PREACHER,  CONTINUED. 

A  MONG  those  things  which  are  needed  to  the 
-^-^  furnishing  of  a  successful  preacher,  I  would  give 
an  important  place  to  the  study  of  the  zvorks  of  stand- 
ard authors.  Paul  said  to  Timothy,  "  Give  attendance 
to  reading,"  and  the  advice  is  even  more  needed  in 
modern  times  than  it  was  in  the  days  in  which  he 
lived,  for  now  ''  many  are  running  to  and  fro,  and 
knowledge  has  been  increased."  If  the  minister  is  to 
be  a  leader  of  men,  he  must  keep  ahead  of  them,  or 
at  least  abreast  with  them  in  ordinary  intelligence, 
for,  if  they  detect  him  blundering  in  matters  of  his- 
tory, philosophy,  or  literature,  or  if  they  discover  that 
he  is  comparatively  ignorant  in  these  departments, 
they  will  have  little  respect  for  his  opinions  and  small 
confidence  in  his  judgment,  even  when  he  is  speaking 
to  them  of  things  that  lie  within  his  proper  province. 
But,  over  and  above  this  negative  advantage,  the 
effort  to  master  the  writings  of  great  thinkers  will 
strengthen  your  own  minds,  while  the  truths  which 
they  proclaim,  will  suggest  to  you  trains  of  thought 
which  otherwise  might  never  have  occurred  to  you.  Ab- 
solute originality,  nowadays,  is  all  but  an  impossibility. 
The  most  we  can  hope  for  is  that  we  shall  be  able  to 


54 


THE  MINISTRY  OF   THE    WORD. 


give  freshness  and  point  to  our  own  thinking,  as  we 
go  over  the  subjects  on  which  men  have  exercised 
their  intellects  from  the  beginning  until  now ;  and, 
for  my  part,  I  know  no  method  by  which  that  can  be 
secured  more  thoroughly  than  by  the  wise  use  of 
good  books. 

Some,  indeed,  have  affected  to  despise  their  assist- 
ance, but  the  result  of  such  a  course  is,  in  most  in- 
stances, mental  barrenness.  We  all  know  how  stimu- 
lating it  is  to  come  into  contact  with  a  great  man. 
His  talk  is  extraordinarily  helpful.  There  is  that  in 
his  words  which  makes  them  seminal  and  germinant, 
so  that  they  take  root  in  our  minds  and  spring  up, 
and  bring  forth  fruit  which  is  a  joy  to  us,  and  a  bene- 
fit to  those  with  whom  we  share  it.  But  a  similar 
effect  is  produced  in  the  diligent  student  by  a  great 
book.  In  reading  such  a  production  we  are,  as  it 
were,  listening  for  the  time  to  the  conversation  of  its 
author,  on  those  subjects  on  which  he  w^as  most  at 
home,  and  we  become  possessed  of  that  which  if  he 
had  been  questioned  regarding  it,  he  would  have 
valued  more  highly  than  all  his  other  attainments  : 
thus,  pigmies  though  we  may  be  ourselves,  in  perus- 
ing the  writings  of  those  standard  thinkers  who  have 
enriched  the  world  with  their  works,  we  stand  on  the 
shoulders  of  earth's  intellectual  giants,  and  behold  all 
that  was  visible  to  their  searching  gaze.  Cultivate 
an  acquaintance,  therefore,  with  good  books  ;  for  as 
one  has  beautifully  said  :  ''  They  are  the  masters  who 
instruct  us  without  rods  or  anger ;  if  you  approach 
them,  they  are  not  asleep  ;  if  you  inquire  of  them, 


THE  PREPARATION  OF  THE  PREACHER.         55 

they  do  not  hide  themselves ;  they  do  not  chide  if 
you  err ;  they  do  not  laugh  if  you  are  ignorant.  It 
matters  not  in  what  mood  we  are,  they  are  ever  the 
same ;  Milton's  Paradise  knows  no  winter  ;  and  the 
bells  of  Bunyan's  New  Jerusalem  are  always  ringing 
joy."  * 

But  you  cannot  read  ever}^  book,  and  it  would  not 
be  desirable  that  you  should  do  so,  even  if  you  could. 
Here,  therefore,  selection  is  necessary,  and  for  making 
that,  no  better  direction  can  be  given  you  than  that 
addressed  the  other  day  by  Dean  Stanley  to  the  stu- 
dents of  the  University  of  St.  Andrews  :  "  Read  the 
great  books,  and  let  the  little  ones  take  care  of 
themselves."  Richard  Cecil  said  :  "  I  have  a  shelf  in 
my  study  for  tried  authors  ;  one  in  my  mind  for  tried 
principles,  and  one  in  my  heart  for  tried  friends." 
Now  there  are  certain  tried  books,  which  by  common 
consent  have  been  placed  apart  from  all  others  in  our 
language,  and  elevated  to  a  quasi-peerage  in  our  litera- 
ture ;  and  these  you  ought  to  study,  not  through  the 
medium  of  abridgments  or  other  make-shifts,  but  in 
the  original  productions.  What  these  are  will  imme- 
diately suggest  themselves  to  you  in  connection  with 
the  departments  to  which  they  severally  belong,  and 
I  will  not  stay  to  attempt  to  enumerate  them  ;  but  I 
may  say  that  it  would  not  be  creditable  to  any  minis- 
ter using  our  mother  tongue,  if  he  were  ignorant  of 
Shakespeare  and  Milton  among  the  poets  ;  Gibbon, 


*  Religion  :  Its  Influence  on  the  Working  Man  at  his  Leisure, 
a  Lecture  by  Rev.  William  Graham,  Liverpool,  p.  9. 


56 


THE  MINISTRY  OF   THE    WORD. 


Macaulay,  and  Motley  among  the  historians ;  Locke, 
Reid,  Hamilton,  and  Mill  among  the  philosophers; 
or  Butler,  Edwards,  and  Chalmers  among  the  theo- 
logians. While  in  the  various  branches  of  natural 
science,  after  having  made  yourselves  familiar  with 
the  elements,  you  will  find  it  of  advantage  to  go  at 
once  to  the  writings  of  those  who  are  the  acknowl- 
edged masters  in  each. 

But  never  forget  that  the  manner  of  your  reading 
is  as  important  as  the  matter.  Samuel  Johnson  used 
to  say,  "  Whatever  is  worth  doing  at  all  is  worth 
doing  well."  And  if  a  book  be  worth  reading  at  all,  it 
should  be  perused  with  care  and  attention.  Simple, 
however,  as  this  statement  looks,  many  never  act 
upon  it.  They  are  mere  devourers  of  books,  and  so 
suffer  from  literary  dyspepsia.  They  never  attempt 
to  digest  and  assimilate  the  thoughts  of  others,  for 
their  one  care  seems  to  be  to  get  over  the  pages,  so 
that  they  may  add  another  to  the  list  of  works  which 
they  can  say  they  have  read.  And  there  are  multi- 
tudes more,  who  do  not  give  even  so  much  attention 
to  them  as  that.  They  glance  over  the  preface,  read 
hurriedly  the  table  of  contents,  dip  here  and  there 
into  the  work  itself,  and  then  go  away  professing  that 
they  understand  the  whole.  Dean  Swift  complained 
of  some,  in  his  day,  that  they  did  with  books  what 
others  did  with  great  Lords  in  the  peerage,  namely, 
learned  their  titles,  and  then  went  away  and  boasted 
of  their  acquaintance  ;  and  it  is  to  be  feared  that  not 
a  few  are  guilty  of  the  same  pretensiveness  in  our  own 
times.     Let  it  not  be  so  with  you.     When  you  take 


THE  PREPARATION  OF  THE  PREACHER.         5^7 

Up  a  work,  resolve  to  understand  it  thoroughly.  The 
ancients  had  a  proverb  —  Cave  hominem  unius  libri 
(Beware  of  the  man  of  one  book) — in  which  they 
noted  that  he  who  had  perfectly  mastered  one  book 
was  a  tougher  antagonist  by  far  than  the  mere  Jiclluo 
librorum,  who  "■  bolts "  books  by  the  dozen,  as  a 
Dorset  laborer  ^'  bolts  bacon."  Thomas  Fuller  has 
quaintly  said,  ''  I  judge  of  good  housekeeping  not  by 
the  number  of  chimneys,  but  by  the  smoke."  So  you 
may  gauge  your  intellectual  strength  not  by  the 
number  of  books  which  you  have  perused,  but  by 
that  of  those  which  you  have  digested  and  made 
your  own.  One  standard  author,  pored  over  until  he 
has  become  a  part  of  ourselves,  will  do  more  for  the 
cultivation  of  our  minds  than  a  whole  library  super- 
ficially glanced  at. 

And  that  you  may  know  what  I  mean  by  thorough 
reading,  let  us  take  the  case  of  such  a  work, 
for  example,  as  "  Butler's  Analogy."  As  you  lift 
the  volume,  you  must  be  warned  not  to  expect 
that  you  have  an  easy  task  before  you.  There  is 
very  little  that  is  pleasing  in  the  style,  and  there  is 
much  that  is  intricate  and  involved  in  the  argument, 
so  that  you  must  keep  yourselves  constantly  alert, 
and  make  every  sentence  a  study.  But  if  you  will 
only  prosecute  your  investigation  with  wisdom  and 
perseverance  to  the  end,  you  will  rise  from  the  perusal 
of  that  book  with  a  sense  of  satisfaction  such  as  rarely 
fills  the  soul.  No  doubt  authors,  since  Butler's  day, 
have  so  drunk  into  his  spirit  and  developed  his  views, 
that,  unconsciously  to  ourselves,  we   have   on    many 

3* 


58  THE  MINISTRY  OF   THE    WORD. 

subjects  been  breathing  the  atmosphere  which  he 
created,  and  this  may  prevent  us  from  having  the 
same  sense  of  novelty  in  the  study  of  the  "Analogy" 
as  those  must  have  felt  who  first  read  its  pages,  but 
still,  he  was  to  ethics  and  Christian  evidences  al- 
most what  Bacon  and  Newton  were  to  the  physical 
sciences ;  and  much  that  is  best  in  our  moral  philos- 
ophy and  theology  for  the  past  hundred  years,  is  but 
the  development  of  "  way-side  seeds  "  which  fell  from 
his  full  hand  as  he  went  forth  to  sow  in  the  field 
which  he  had  chosen.  But,  more  than  most  other 
books,  the  ''Analogy"  is  a  study,  and  to  master  it 
thoroughly,  you  must  take  it  by  degrees.  Read  a 
chapter  at  a  time,  carefully  marking  on  the  margin  the 
various  steps  of  the  closely-compacted  argument, 
and  at  the  close  comparing  your  own  analysis  with 
the  summary  which  he  himself  gives  at  the  end  of 
each  section.  In  this  work,  as  well  as  in  weighing 
the  precise  force  or  estimating  the  legitimateness  of 
his  several  arguments,  you  may  receive  some  useful 
hints  from  the  notes  in  Bishop  Fitzgerald's  admirable 
edition,  and  also  from  the  criticisms  of  Chalmers  on 
each  chapter,  which  are  to  be  found  in  one  of  the 
volumes  of  his  posthumous  works.  Thus  furnished, 
you  will  make  your  way  slowly,  but  surely,  along  ; 
and  when  you  reach  the  end,  you  will  have  become 
so  accustomed  to  the  style  and  method  of  reasoning, 
that  you  will  be  able  to  return  and  reperuse  the 
earlier  portions  of  the  work,  not  only  with  ease,  but 
also  with  positive  enjoyment.  Such  a  book,  so 
studied,  will  make  a  man  a  thinker,  and  ''set  him  up" 
in  philosophy  and  theology  for  life. 


THE  PREPARATION  OF  THE  PREACHER.         ^q 

Other  examples  might  be  given,  but  this  must  suf- 
fice ;  and,  from  my  own  experience,  I  feel  warranted 
in  saying  that,  if  you  will  only  set  about  something 
of  this  kind,  with  some  of  our  standard  books,  it  will 
do  more  for  you  in  the  way  of  furnishing  you  with 
mental  strength  for  the  pulpit  than  all  the  education 
of  all  the  schools.'"  I  do  not  prescribe  any  particular 
method,  only  let  it  be  understood  to  be  essential  that 
in  some  way  meditation  should  be  secured  along  with 
reading.  What  mastication  and  digestion  are  to  food, 
in  the  process  of  the  nourishment  of  the  body,  that 
meditation  is  to  reading,  in  the  development  of  the 
mind.  Hence  it  was  a  good  rule  which  was  given  by 
a  scholar  to  a  friend,-)-  ''  Proportion  an  hour's  reflec- 
tion to  an  hour's  reading,  and  so  dispirit  the  book 
into  the  student."  And  your  own  Dr.  Dwight  often 
said  that  the  weakness  of  his  eye-sight  was  attended 
with  this  advantage,  that  it  compelled  him  to  think 
much. 

It  is  a  good  plan  to  compare  notes  on  your  read- 


*  To  those  who  wish  more  minute  directions  on  this  subject,  I 
would  recommend  the  lecture  of  Dr.  Channing  on  "  Self-Cul- 
ture," to  be  found  in  his  collected  works  ;  also  the  recent  valuable 
little  book  of  Professor  Blackie,  of  Edinburgh,  on  "  Self-Culture," 
and  the  exhaustive  and  everyway  admirable  treatise  of  President 
Porter  on  "Books  and  Reading."  Willmott's  " Pleasures, -Ob- 
jects, and  Advantages  of  Literature,"  though  sketchy  and  in 
some  degree  fragmentary,  is  often  very  suggestive  ;  and  the 
chapter  on  Books  in  Mr.  Emerson's  "  Society  and  Solitude"  is 
full  of  nuggets  of  the  purest  gold. 

t  Wiilmolt,  as  above,  page  38. 


bo  THE  MINISTRY  OF  THE   WORD. 

ing  with  a  brother,  like-minded  with  yourself,  and  so 
m  your  daily  walks  you  may  combine  the  advantages 
of  physical  exercise  with  those  of  mental  culture.  In 
the  early  years  of  my  Liverpool  pastorate,  I  was 
greatly  beholden  to  a  beloved  friend,  still  in  the 
ministry  in  that  town,  whose  fine  taste,  extensive 
information,  boundless  humor,  and  kindly  heart  made 
our  weekly  conference  along  the  shore  of  the  Mersey 
a  stimulus  and  a  joy  to  me.  Reading  had  made  him 
a  full  man,  and  conference  a  ready  man.  I  dare  not 
add  that  writing  had  made  him  an  exact  man  ;  but 
he  was  to  me  one  of  the  best  of  teachers,  for  he  let 
me  see  how  to  get  at  the  kernel  of  a  book  without 
breaking  my  teeth  upon  the  shell."^ 

But  if,  from  the  isolation  of  your  position,  you  can- 
not have  such  brotherly  assistance  from  another,  then 
talk  to  yourself  on  the  subject  with  your  pen.  Write 
a  criticism  of  your  own  upon  your  author,  and  if  you 
think  him  wrong  on  any  point,  try  your  strength 
against  him,  in  the  shape  of  an  exposure  of  his  error, 
and  an  enforcement  of  that  which  you  believe  to  be 
the  truth.  This  will  be  a  capital  intellectual  exercise, 
even  if  no  human  eye  should  ever  see  your  essay  but 
your  own ;  while,  perhaps,  the  sending  of  it  to  your 
author,f  or  the  giving  of  it  to   the  press  in   some 


*  The  reference  here  is  to  my  much-loved  brother,  the  Rev. 
William  Graham,  whose  fellowship  for  sixteen  years  was  one  of 
the  clearest  privileges  of  my  life. 

t  The  publication  of  his  essay  on  the  "  Philosophy  of  the  In- 
finite," in  which,  while  yet  a  student,  he  criticised  the  system  of 
Sir  William  Hamilton,  has  resulted  in  the  elevation  of  Professor 


THE  PREPARATION  OF  THE  PREACHER.         6 1 

periodical,  may  often  furnish  stimulus  or  give  direc- 
tion to  your  whole  after-career.  But,  qiiocimque  modo, 
anyhow,  compel  yourself  to  think  on  what  you  read, 
if  you  would  make  your  reading  minister  to  your 
pulpit  efficiency. 

The  remarks  which  I  have  just  made  have  prepared 
the  way  for  the  announcement  of  the  next  prerequisite 
to  ministerial  efficiency  on  which  I  would  insist,  name- 
ly, the  free  and  constant  nse  of  the  pen  in  the  zvork  of 
original  composition.  I  enter  not  now  on  the  con- 
sideration of  such  questions  as  whether  sermons 
should  be  written,  and  if  so,  whether  they  should  be 
read  from  the  manuscript  or  delivered  memoriter  or 
otherwise  ;  these  will  come  up  at  a  later  stage  ;  mean- 
while, however  it  is  to  be  with  your  preparations  for 
the  pulpit  in  after-days,  I  am  disposed  to  insist  upon 
it  as  positively  essential  to  your  success,  that  you 
should  now  acquire  facility  in  writing.  I  do  not  care 
very  much  what  subjects  you  may  treat,  or  what  the 
immediate  object  may  be  which  you  have  in  view, 
only  I  would  urge  it  upon  you  with  all  the  emphasis 


Calderwood  to  the  chair  of  Moral  Philosophy  in  Edinburgh  ;  and 
for  the  sake  of  the  lesson  which  it  points,  I  may  be  forgiven  for 
saying  that  the  writing,  while  I  was  but  a  youth  of  nineteen, 
of  a  review  of  an  article  which  had  appeared  in  the  Journal 
of  Sacred  Literature,  and  the  sending  of  it  to  Dr.  John  Kitto, 
while  he  was  the  editor  of  that  Quarterly,  was  my  first  entrance 
into  the  field  of  authorship.  I  wrote  it  for  my  own  improvement, 
and  sent  it  to  him  by  the  advice  of  others,  much  against  my  own 
inclination  ;  but  when  I  saw  it  in  actual  type,  the  very  letters 
danced  before  my  eyes  ! 


02  THE  MINISTR  V  OF  THE  WORD. 

I  can  command,  that  you  should  accustom  yourselves 
to  composition. 

This  will  give  definiteness  and  precision  to  your 
thinking.  What  you  can  write  on  any  subject  is 
really  all  that  you  know  concerning  it,  and  the  char- 
acter of  your  composition  will  infallibly  indicate  the 
quality  of  your  knowledge.  The  pen  is  a  wonderful 
crystallizer,  and  if  the  work  of  meditation  be  suffi- 
ciently advanced,  its  employment  will  be  all  that  is 
needed  to  give  solidity  and  arrangement  to  your 
thoughts.  If,  however,  your  ideas  are  crude  and  ill- 
digested,  your  composition  will  be  hazy  and  dis- 
jointed, and  you  will  be  tempted  to  make  up  for  the 
lack  of  more  valuable  materials  by  the  importation 
into  it  of  high-sounding  verbiage.  Thus  you  may 
test  with  unerring  accuracy  the  completeness  of  your 
thinking  by  the  character  of  your  style.  When  your 
words  are  clear,  simple,  strong,  you  are  treading  on 
ground  with  which  you  are  familiar ;  when  your 
language  is  vague,  indefinite,  and  obscure,  you  may 
depend  upon  it  that  you  have  not  yet  attained  to  a 
thorough  understanding  of  your  subject.  Hence, 
even  as  a  means  of  study,  the  use  of  the  pen  is  indis- 
pensable. 

But  copious  composition  is  also  valuable  as  minis- 
tering to  readiness  of  expression.  As  preachers,  you 
will  have  to  discourse  week  by  week  to  your  hearers. 
Now  whether  your  sermons  are  to  be  written  or 
spoken  merely  from  careful  thinking  beforehand,  you 
will  equally  need  facility  in  the  art  of  clothing  your 
ideas  in  words.     If  you  write    your  discourses,  then 


THE  PREPARATION  OF  THE  PREACHER.         63 

you  will  never  get  through  your  work,  if  you  should 
proceed,  as  his  friends  used  jokingly  to  say  John  Foster 
did,  at  the  rate  of  a  sentence  a  day.  If,  again,  you 
are  to  speak  from  premeditation  merely,  then,  unless 
you  have  acquired  the  habit  of  easily  giving  verbal 
shape  to  your  thoughts,  you  will  be  hesitating  and 
hampered  in  your  utterance,  or  you  will  be  borne 
along  by  a  fatal  fluency,  in  which  reiteration  will  take 
the  place  of  argument,  and  sound  will  be  made  to 
serve  for  sense.  The  only  preventive  against  these 
dangers  lies  in  acquiring  the  habit  of  giving  definite 
expression  to  your  thoughts  by  frequent  composition. 
It  will  not  come  of  itself.  It  is  the  result  of  practice, 
for,  as  Pope  has  said  : 

"True  ease  in  writing  comes  from  art,  not  chance, 
As  those  move  easiest  who  have  learned  to  dance." 

Let  the  pen,  therefore,  be  always  in  your  hand,  or  at 
your  hand,  and  seek  to  acquire  the  art  of  expression 
so  thoroughly  that  when  you  have  a  thought  to  utter, 
the  language  appropriate  for  its  communication  will 
come  to  you  as  naturally  as,  when  you  are  writing 
a  word,  the  letters  required  for  the  spelling  of  it 
rise  to  your  remembrance. 

Aim  at  the  securing  of  a  style  which  shall 
present  your  thoughts  forcibly,  clearly,  and  elo- 
quently to  the  minds  of  your  hearers ;  and  do  not 
suppose  that  you  can  accomplish  that  without  long 
and  laborious  practice.  Cultivate  acquaintance  with 
the  writings  of  those  who  have  been  famous  for  this 
peculiarity ;  for,  as  one  can  acquire  the  manners  of 


64  THE  MINISTR  Y  OF   THE   WORD. 

good  society  only  by  mixing  in  it,  so  we  can  catch 
the  ease  and  elegance  of  a  good  style  only  by  read- 
ing first-rate  authors.  I  do  not  mean,  of  course,  that 
you  are  to  imitate  them  in  your  compositions,  but 
merely  that  from  the  insensible  influence  of  their 
example  upon  you,  their  beauty  and  simplicity  may 
repeat  themselves  through  you.  No  one  will  charge 
John  Bright  with  imitation.  He  is  the  most  natural 
of  orators ;  and  yet,  when  we  are  told  that  for  many 
years  he  has  been  in  the  habit,  before  retiring  to  rest 
after  the  excitement  of  a  night  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, of  reading  for  an  hour  from  one  of  the  poets, 
taking  a  new  one  each  winter,  and  that  he  has  thus 
gone  over  most  of  the  classic  poetry  of  his  native 
land,  we  think  we  have  discovered  one  of  the  factors 
which  have  gone  to  produce  that  wonderful  com- 
bination of  simplicity  and  power,  of  beauty  and 
strength,  by  which  his  speeches   are  distinguished. 

Seek  to  get  the  best  words  and  to  put  them  in  the 
best  places.  Yet  do  not  suppose  that  the  biggest  are 
necessarily  the  best.  The  vice  of  much  of  the  writing 
in  these  days  in  newspapers,  periodicals,  and  even  in 
sermons,  is  pretensiveness.  The  authors  are  ambitious 
to  show  their  learning,  and  common  words,  which  are 
common  simply  because  they  are  the  most  expressive 
and  intelligible,  are  treated  as  if  they  were  vulgar,  and 
forced  to  give  place  to  others  which  have  nothing  but 
their  legirned  origin  or  their  unusual  length  to  recom- 
mend them.  Remember  that  in  every  sort  of  com- 
position perspicuity  is  more  than  half  the  battle,  and 
that  a  meaning;  which  does  not  stare  a  man  in  the 


THE  PREPARATlOy  OF  THE  PREACHER. 


65 


face  is  as  bad  as  no  meaning  at  all,  since  he  will  most 
likely  never  trouble  himself  to  attempt  to  discover  it. 
Let  your  rule  be  to  write  not  merely  in  such  a  way  as 
to  be  understood,  but  rather  so  plainly  that  it  will  be 
impossible  for  any  one  of  average  intelligence  to  mis- 
understand you.  Guthrie^  tells  us  that  an  intelligent 
member  of  his  first  congregation  at  Arbirlot  declined 
to  take  a  second  volume  of  Chalmers'  works  out  of 
the  library  of  the  parish,  on  the  ground  that  he  had 
to  look  up  for  the  meaning  of  so  many  of  that  author's 
words  in  the  dictionary,  and  very  often  did  not  find 
them  there,  after  all.  Let  not  the  lesson  of  such  an 
incident  be  lost  upon  you.  Choose  the  simplest  and 
most  familiar  terms,  and  if  at  any  time  a  word  should 
recommend  itself  to  you  because  of  its  novelty  or  its 
rarity,  draw  your  pen  through  it,  and  put  in  its  place 
the  plainest  substitute  you  can  command.  Never  say 
"  hebdomadal "  when  you  mean  ''  weekly,"'!'  and  do 
not  lament  that  men  have  ''  perverse  proclivities  to 
prevarication,"  when  you  might  express  the  same 
thought  in  Falstaff 's  words,  ''  Lord,  how  this  world  is 
given  to  lying."  Abjure  all  technical  terms  which, 
however  familiar  they  may  be  to  you,  are  utterly  un- 
known to  those  who  shall  be  your  hearers.  If  you 
wish  to  remind  men  that  conscience  is  God's  voice 
within  the  soul,  do  not  say,  as  I  heard  a  young 
preacher  say  last  year,  that  "  conscience  has  its  roots 


*  "Autobiography  and  Memoirs,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  139. 

t  See    further  on   this  point,  "  The  Preacher's  Lantern,"  Vol. 
II.,  pp.  606-615. 


66  THE  MINISTRY  OF  THE   WORD. 

in  the  soil  of  the  absolute."  All  these  modes  of 
expression  look  very  learned,  but  they  are  in  reality 
only  ridiculous.  The  end  of  communicating  our 
thoughts  to  others  is,  that  they  may  be  moved  there- 
by to  purer  and  nobler  lives  ;  but,  to  secure  that  end, 
they  must  understand  our  words.  And  ''  I  had  rather 
speak  five  words  with  my  understanding,  that  by  my 
voice  I  might  teach  others  also,  than  ten  thousand 
words  in  an  unknown  tongue."^ 

Be  not  allured,  either,  by  high-sounding  adjectives. 
The  business  of  an  epithet  is  to  give  prominence  to 
some  quality  the  mention  of  which  is  needed  to  bring 
fully  before  the  hearer's  mind  the  matter  of  which  we 
speak.  But,  as  commonly  employed  by  writers  and 
preachers,  adjectives  are  the  merest  expletives.  They 
are  inserted  to  ballast,  or  balance,  the  clauses  of  an 
antithesis,  or  to  give  padding  to  an  ill-constructed  sen- 
tence. They  have  an  appearance  of  strength,  but  they 
are  really  the  evidence  of  weakness.  They  are  the  in- 
flated currency  of  rhetoric.  Wealth  of  speech  consists 
not  in  them,  but  in  the  ringing  gold  of  thought.  Use 
them  only  when  there  is  something  in  the  thought  that 
corresponds  to  them  ;  and  when  you  come  to  ask 
yourselves  concerning  each,  "  Is  this  absolutely  need- 
ful to  express  my  meaning  ?  "  you  will  be  surprised 
to  discover  how  seldom  they  are  required.  In  fact, 
it  might  be  a  good  thing  if  one  could  have  a  waste- 
basket  by  his  side,  into  which  he  could  throw  th'ree 
out  of  every  four  epithets  that  rise  to  his  pen.     They 


*  1  Corinthians  xiv.  19. 


THE  PREPARATION  OF  THE  PREACHER.         6/ 

give  an  exaggerated  character  to  one's  style,  as  if  all 
the  while  he  were  straining  on  tip-toe  or  walking  upon 
stilts.  Nay,  worse  than  all,  they  are  many  times  false, 
and  the  employment  of  them  is  apt  to  foster  an  un- 
reality 'in  our  speech,  which  is  akin  to  hypocrisy  in 
conduct.  There  is  an  ethical  element  in  composition 
as  in  other  things,  and  Ruskin's  canons  in  regard  to 
architecture  hold  equally  in  the  building  of  our  ser- 
mons and  other  compositions.  Let  your  style  be 
true  to  your  thought  —  that  is,  let  it  be  a  clear 
medium  for  the  transmission  of  your  thought — and 
then  the  individuality  of  your  thinking  will  character- 
ize its  expression  also. 

Take  heed  also  of  circumlocution.  Go  straight  at 
your  thought.  When  a  man  is  in  earnest,  he  will 
take  the  shortest  way.  Sometimes,  indeed,  it  may 
be  well  to  detain  the  mind  of  the  auditor  over  your 
statement  for  a  moment  or  two  by  judicious  amplifi- 
cation, and  so  make  sure  that  it  is  perfectly  under- 
stood ;  for,  as  Whately  has  said,  bulk  is  necessary  to 
digestion.  Occasionally,  too,  one  may  indulge  in  that 
sort  of  reiteration  for  which  Chalmers  was  remarkable, 
provided  he  can  make  it,  as  Chalmers  did,  the  whirl- 
ings of  the  sling,  which  give  swiftness  to  the  stone 
that  he  is  about  to  launch  from  it ;  but,  in  general, 
the  briefest  and  most  direct  expression  we  can  give 
to  our  meaning  is  the  best.  Go  forward  steadily 
toward  your  goal,  and  keep  just  a  little  way  ahead 
of  your  hearers.  Do  not  gallop  so  quickly  that  they 
shall  have  difficulty  in  keeping  up  with  you,  and  do 
not  loiter  so  long  over  the  flowers  by  the  way-side  or 


68  THE  MINISTRY  OF  THE   WORD. 

with  the  travelers  whom  you  may  chance  to  meet 
upon  the  road,  that  they  shall  be  tempted  to  go  on 
before  you. 

All  this  will  require  much  study  on  your  part,  while 
yet  you  may  get  from  the  unthinking  but  little  credit 
for  your  toil.  That  which  by  dint  of  patient  effort 
you  have  made  easy  for  others  to  comprehend,  will  not 
appear  to  them  to  be  great.  The  clear  is  not  often 
counted  deep,  and  the  "drumley"  is  very  frequently 
reckoned  profound.  But  then,  that  will  be  of  no  con- 
sequence to  you  if  you  be  a  true  minister  of  Christ, 
for  you  have  crucified  self,  and  what  is  a  reputation 
for  learning  or  for  depth  to  you  if  only  you  succeed 
in  making  plain  to  men  the  way  of  life,  and  persuad- 
ing them  to  walk  therein?  Set  to  work,  therefore, 
with  your  pen,  and  labor  on,  in  season  and  out  of 
season,  that  you  may  acquire  the  habit  of  giving 
simple,  effective,  and  direct  expression  to  the  thoughts 
that  arise  within  you. 

Much  I  might  say  to  you  here  from  my  own  expe- 
rience, for  the  pen  has  been  almost  constantly  in  my 
hand  since  I  was  thirteen  years  of  age,  but  I  prefer 
to  bring  before  you  the  history  of  one  of  the  ablest 
preachers  of  his  country  and  his  age.  You  have  all 
heard  of  Thomas  Binney,  late  minister  of  the  King's 
Weigh-house  Chapel,  London, — that  Archbishop  of 
English  Nonconformity,  as  one  might  call  him — who 
so  nobly  moulded  much  of  the  Christian  thought  and 
legislation  of  his  times.  A  few  years  before  his  death, 
in  addressing  the  young  men  of  his  church,  he  gave 
them  this  interesting  autobiographic    sketch  :  "  You 


THE  PREPARATION  OF  THE  PREACHER.         69 

are  all  young  men,  engaged  in  business,  but  have  to 
improve  your  minds  as  best  you  can  in  your  leisure 
hours.  Well,  I  was  once  in  the  same  position.  I  was 
seven  years  in  a  bookseller's  concern,  and  during  that 
time  my  hours  were,  for  two  years,  from  seven  A.  M. 
to  eight  P.  M.,  and  for  five  years  from  seven  to  seven  ; 
under  great  pressure,  I  have  sometimes  been  engaged 
from  six  A.  M.  till  ten  P.  M.  But,  somehow,  all  the 
time,  and  especially  from  my  fourteenth  to  my  twen- 
tieth year,  I  found  opportunities  for  much  reading 
and  a  great  deal  of  composition.  I  did  not  shirk, 
however,  my  Latin  and  Greek,  for  I  went  for  some 
time  two  evenings  in  the  week  to  an  old  Presbyterian 
clergyman  to  learn  the  elements  of  the  two  languages, 
and  could  read  Caesar  and  St.  John.  But  my  great 
work  was  English.  I  read  many  of  the  best  authors, 
and  I  wrote  largely  both  poetry  and  prose,  and  I  did 
so  with  much  painstaking.  I  labored  to  acquire  a 
good  style  of  expression  as  well  as  merely  to  express 
my  thoughts.  Some  of  the  plans  I  pursued  were 
rather  odd,  and  produced  odd  results.  I  read  the 
whole  of  Johnson's  ^  Rambler,'  put  down  all  the  new 
words  I  met  with — and  they  were  a  good  many — 
with  their  proper  meanings,  and  then  I  wrote  essays 
in  imitation  of  Johnson,  and  used  them  up.  I  did 
the  same  with  Thomson's  '■  Seasons,'  and  wrote  blank 
verse  to  use  his  words  and  also  to  acquire  something 
of  music  and  rythm.  And  so  I  went  on,  sometimes 
writing  long  poems  in  heroic  verse ;  one  on  the  '  Be- 
ing of  a  God  ;'  another,  in  two  or  three  books,  in  blank 
verse,  in  imitation  of  '  Paradise  Lost.'    I  wrote  essavs 


^O  THE  MINISTRY  OF  THE   WORD. 

on  the  immortality  of  the  soul ;  sermons ;  a  tragedy, 
in  three  acts,  and  other  things,  very  wonderful  in 
their  way,  you  may  be  sure.  I  think  I  can  say  I 
never  fancied  myself  a  poet  or  philosopher,  but  I 
wrote  on  and  on  to  acquire  the  power  to  write  v/ith 
readiness ;  and  I  say  to  you,  with  a  full  conviction  of  the 
truth  of  what  I  say,  that,  having  lived  to  gain  som^e 
little  reputation  as  a  writer,  I  attribute  all  my  success 
to  what  I  did  for  myself,  and  to  the  habits  I  formed 
during  those  years  to  which  I  have  thus  referred."* 

Few  ministers  had  the  power  of  Mr.  Binney,  wheth- 
er in  the  preaching  of  sermons  from  a  manuscript  or 
in  extempore  delivery ;  and  the  foundation  of  much 
that  he  was  and  did  was  laid  during  these  nights  of 
work.  But  his  experience  is  not  by  any  means  singu- 
lar. Many  of  his  brethren  alike  in  England  and 
America  have,  like  him,  "  while  their  companions 
slept,"  been  ''  toiling  upwards  in  the  night  ;"  and 
something  of  the  same  self-discipline  is  essential  to 
the  success  of  any  preacher.  Go  to  work,  then,  young 
men,  in  a  similar  spirit,  and  very  soon  you  will  forget 
the  labor  in  the  delight  which  it  will  bring  with  it. 
Your  interest  will  never  flag ;  your  enthusiasm  v/ill 
never  tire.  Ever  new  beauties  will  open  up  before 
you  ;  ever  new  allurements  will  beckon  you  on  ;  for 
in  such  pursuits  you  will  find  what  Milton  has  called 
*'  the  hill-side  where  is  the  right  path  of  a  virtuous 
and   noble    education,  laborious,  indeed,  at   its  first 


*  "  A    Memorial   of  the   late   Rev.  Thomas   Binney,  LL.D. 
Edited  by  John  Stoughton,  D.D.,  pp.  12,  13. 


THE  PREPARATION  OF  THE  PREACHER.         yi 

ascent,  but  else  so  smooth,  so  green,  so  full  of  goodly 
prospect  and  melodious  sound  on  every  side,  that  the 
harp  of  Orpheus  was  not  more  charming."f 

All  the  things  which  as  yet  I  have  mentioned  would 
be  required,  even  if  your  business  were  to  be  the 
moving  of  men  through  the  press.  But  your  special 
work  is  to  be  that  of  preaching.  You  are  to  seek  to 
sway  your  hearers  by  the  living  voice,  and  for  this 
you  have  opportunities  such  as  are  accorded  to  no 
other  profession.  By  common  consent  your  people 
will  give  up  a  portion  of  every  Lord's  day  for  the 
very  purpose  of  placing  themselves  under  your  guid- 
ance. They  will  come  to  the  house  of  assembly  with 
minds  and  hearts,  in  some  measure,  already  prepared 
to  listen  to  your  words ;  but  this,  far  from  making  you 
indifferent  to  the  work  of  addressing  them,  will  only 
spur  you  on  to  make  the  best  of  your  opportunity. 
Accordingly,  my  treatment  of  the  prerequisites  to 
ministerial  success  would  be  signally  incomplete,  if  I 
did  not  give  prominence  to  the  acquirement  oi facility 
and  distinctness  in  public  speaking.  Without  that, 
the  arch  which  you  build  will  lack  the  key-stone, 
which  gives  stability  to  all  the  rest.  Without  that, 
the  arrow  which  you  have  constructed  with  such  skill, 
and  the  bow  which  you  have  bent  with  such  force, 
will  be  merely  ornamental  ;  it  is  effective  utterance 
alone  which  can  place  the  one  upon  the  other,  and 
give  to  the  polished  shaft  the  full  momentum  of  the 
bow,  so  that  it  shall  go  whizzing  to  its  mark. 


t  "jMikon's  Prose  Works."     Bohn's  edition.  Vol.  III.,  p.  467. 


72 


THE  MINISTR  Y  OF  THE   WORD. 


I  would  not  go  so  far  as  to  say  that  articulate  and 
earnest  delivery  is  everything  in  a  sermon  ;  for  truth 
is  in  words  as  well  as  in  manner,  and  far  more  in  the 
former  than  in  the  latter.  Yet  it  is  undeniable  that 
effective  utterance  will  give  force  even  to  a  feeble  ser- 
mon ;  while  careless,  hesitating,  and  indistinct  speech, 
will  make  the  finest  composition  fall  flat  and  pov/er- 
less  upon  the  listeners'  ears.  In  itself  the  manner 
may  be  far  less  important  than  the  matter ;  but  it  is 
valuable,  as  giving  its  full  force  to  the  matter,  and 
ought  not  to  be  lightly  esteemed.  You  will  do  well, 
therefore,  to  cultivate  elocution.  But  here,  as  in 
other  things,  you  must  be  on  your  guard  against  arti- 
ficiality. What  you  have  to  do  is  not  to  imitate  an- 
other, but  to  cultivate  yourselves.  Do  not  covet 
"  the  stare  and  stark  theatric  practiced  at  the  glass," 
but  aim  rather  to  cure  yourselves  of  any  awkward- 
nesses that  may  adhere  to  you,  and  to  acquire  any 
qualities  in  which  you  may  be  deficient.  Do  not 
make  yourselves  into  lay-figures,  which  are  the  paint- 
er's poor  substitutes  for  living  men,  but  be  yourselves, 
only  yourselves,  purged  from  your  faults,  and  clothed 
with  as  much  power  as  you  can  acquire  by  laborious 
exercise. 

Seek  first  distinctness  of  articulation.  Do  not 
mistake  loudness  for  clearness.  No  doubt  a  certain 
amount  of  volume  is  needed,  if,  as  the  phrase  is,  your 
voice  would  fill  a  large  house.  But  hearers  generally 
will  tell  you  that  they  follow  a  speaker  better  when 
he  is  addressing  them  in  moderate  tones,  than  when, 
in  impassioned  mood,  he  is  exerting  his  voice  to  the 


THE  PREPARATIOiY  OF  THE  PREACHER.         73 

uttermost.  The  true  secret  here  is  to  take  sufficient 
time,  and  to  give  to  every  consonant  its  own  proper 
sound.  The  vowels  can  take  care  of  themselves.  It 
is  a  mistake,  therefore,  to  dwell,  as  some  do,  at  inor- 
dinate length  upon  them.  Such  a  habit  always  pro- 
duces indistinctness.  It  is  the  province  of  the  conso- 
nants to  embank  and  confine  the  river  of  sound  which 
a  vowel  makes,  and  if  you  do  not  keep  them  in  good 
repair,  the  vowel  will  overflow  so  as  to  inundate  the 
ear  of  the  hearer,  and  make  him  unconscious  of  every- 
thing besides.  They  who  are  conversant  with  theat- 
rical matterSj  tell  us  that  by  merely  attending  to  this 
rule,  an  actor  will  make  his  slightest  whisper  audible 
to  all  in  the  building  ;  and  though  our  churches  gener- 
ally— the  more's  the  pity — are  not  so  well  constructed 
for  acoustical  purposes  as  the  theatres,  yet  by  following 
this  method,  you  may  greatly  increase  your  effective- 
ness, without  making  any  larger  expenditure  of  force. 
Again,  be  not  too  rapid  in  your  utterance.  Do  not 
put  your  hearers  out  of  breath  in  their  effort  to  keep 
up  with  you.  This  is  the  common  vice  of  young  ora- 
tors. Therefore,  be  on  your  guard  against  it.  Be 
not  too  slow  either.  But  let  your  speed  be  regulated 
by  the  nature  of  that  which  at  the  moment  you  are 
saying.  If  you  are  laying  down  an  important  princi- 
ple, then  take  time  to  give  it  weight ;  if  you  are  pros- 
ecuting an  intricate  argument,  then  go  forward  leis- 
urely, that  your  hearers  may  mark  well  every  step. 
But  if  your  are  nearing  your  goal,  and  feel  that  you 
have  thus  far  carried  all  before  you,  then  give  yourself 
full  swing  and  rush  on  until  you  reach  it. 
4 


74 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  THE   WORD. 


Cultivate  the  art  of  appropriate  emphasis.  Do  not 
let  your  sermons  be  like  the  letters  of  a  school-miss, 
in  which  every  other  word  is  underscored.  But  study 
how  to  mark  by  the  voice,  the  various  points  which 
need  to  be  thereby  denoted  for  the  hearer's  attention. 
Observe  how  in  ordinary  speech  one  unconsciously 
punctuates  his  sentences  with  emphasis,  and  seek  to 
do  the  same  in  addressing  your  people.  Above  all, 
shun  monotony  as  you  would  the  plague.  It  is  bad 
for  the  voice ;  it  is  bad,  also,  from  its  reflex  influence 
on  the  composition  of  your  sermons,  for  if  you  speak 
on  a  dead  level,  you  will  come  at  length  to  think  on 
a  dead  level ;  and  it  is  especially  bad,  from  its  soporific 
effect  upon  the  audience.  Rest  your  voice  by  vary- 
ing skillfully  its  tones ;  give  direct  narrative  in  an 
easy  and  familiar  style.  Rise  to  a  higher  note  when 
you  become  admonitory.  Let  pathos  and  solemnity 
be  marked  by  the  seriousness  of  your  tone.  Pause 
a  moment  and  change  your  key  when  you  wish  to 
introduce  an  illustration  ;  and  as  you  pass  from  one 
division  of  your  subject  to  another,  give  your  hearers 
time  to  gather  themselves  up  again  before  you  make 
a  new  demand  upon  their  attention. 

For  this  purpose  you  will  need  thorough  self-posses- 
sion ;  and  nothing  but  practice  will  give  you  that. 
Have  yourself  well  in  hand,  so  that  you  can  always 
command  your  powers ;  and  beware  of  letting  your- 
self be  carried  away,  up  into  some  shrieking  falsetto,  by 
which  for  the  whole  remainder  of  your  discourse  your 
voice  will  be  destroyed. 

It  is  easier  to  give  you  these  counsels  than  it  is  to 


T?IE  P  RET  A  RATION  OF  THE  PREACHER.         ^5 

follow  them.  But  drill  and  culture  will  do  much. 
Read  frequently  aloud.  Embrace  every  opportunity 
that  offers,  whether  in  the  debating  society,  or  else- 
where, for  the  practice  of  speaking.  Be  your  own 
most  remorseless  critic ;  and  lay  well  to  heart  the  ad- 
monitions of  any  friend  whose  love  to  you  permits 
you  to  see  yourself  through  the  eyes  of  one  who  is 
deeply  interested  in  your  welfare.  Be  not  discouraged 
though  the  work  be  arduous,  for  so  long  as  the  story 
of  Demosthenes  and  the  pebbles  shall  be  told,  no  one 
needs  despair.  His  perseverance  in  these  details,  in- 
deed, did  not  make  him  an  orator,  but  it  did  enable 
him  to  overcome  defects  of  utterance,  which  would 
have  made  all  his  other  powers  comparatively  worth- 
less, so  far  as  eloquence  was  concerned.  You  may 
not  attain  his  greatness,  but,  by  perseverance,  his  ex- 
ample warrants  you  to  hope  that  you  may  acquire 
distinctness  and  energy  of  speech. 

I  have  dwelt  so  long  on  these  points,  that  I  have 
left  myself  but  little  space  to  speak  of  one  prerequi- 
site to  pulpit  efficiency,  which  is  as  important  as  the 
others,  but  which  now  I  can  do  little  more  than 
name.  I  mean  that  quality  which  we  call  common 
sense.  Alas  !  how  many  preachers  otherwise  admira- 
bly equipped  have  failed  for  lack  of  that !  And  yet  it 
is  difficult  to  give  a  definition  of  it.  We  may  describe 
it  as  an  intuitive  perception  of  the  fitness  of  things, 
so  that  he  who  is  endowed  with  it  will  always  do  that 
which  is  appropriate  to  the  circumstances.  It  is  dif- 
ferent from  caution,  or  what  is  generally  known  as  pru- 


7^ 


THE  MINISTRY  OF   THE    WORD. 


dence ;  inasmuch  as  that  is  the  result  of  calculation, 
while  common  sense  is  rather  an  immediate  percep- 
tion. It  keeps  a  man  from  making,  as  people  say,  a 
fool  of  himself,  either  by  stupid  speech  in  the  pulpit, 
or  by  ridiculous  conduct  out  of  it.  The  breach  of  it 
may  not  be  precisely  an  immorality,  but  it  is  an  inde- 
corum, the  commission  of  which  stamps  him  at  once 
as  an  ass.  He  who  lacks  this  quality  has  no  right  to 
be  a  minister,  for  he  turns  the  most  sacred  things  into 
a  laughing-stock,  and  makes  a  burlesque  of  the  office 
itself. 

Nor  can  this  defect  be  easily  supplied.  The  story 
goes  that  when  a  Scottish  farmer  went  to  his  pastor  to 
consult  him  as  to  sending  his  son  to  college  with  a  view 
to  his  becoming  a  minister,  the  good  man  sought  to 
dissuade  him  from  his  purpose,  and  on  being  asked  for 
the  reason,  said,  "  I  tell  you,  man,  he  wants  common 
sense.  Now,  if  a  man  want  wealth  he  may  get  that ; 
if  he  want  learning,  he  may  get  that ;  if  he  want  the 
grace  of  God,  he  may  get  that ;  but  if  he  want  common 
sense,  he'll  never  get  that."  This  witness  is  true  ;  al- 
beit, the  youth  concerning  whom  these  words  were 
said,  was  very  far  indeed  from  having  no  common 
sense,  for  he  was  none  other  than  George  Lawson,  who 
afterwards  became  distinguished  as  a  professor  of  the- 
ology, and  was  known  over  all  the  country  as  a  Chris- 
tian Socrates.  Still,  it  is  true,  that  common  sense 
cannot  be  acquired.  Yet  in  those  who  have  it,  it  may 
be  cultivated  and  increased ;  and  presuming  that  you 
already  possess  it,  let  me  urge  you  to  give  good  heed 
to  its  suggestions. 


THE  PREPARATION  OF  THE  PREACHER.  -m 

Do  not  set  yourselves  to  shock  the  feelings  of 
your  hearers  by  your  wanton  defiance  of  all  their 
prepossessions,  or  if  you  will,  their  prejudices. 
Become  all  things  to  all  men,  that  you  may  by 
all  means  save  some.  A  mountebank  may  be  in 
his  place  in  the  ring  of  the  circus,  but  he  has  no  busi- 
ness in  the  pulpit ;  and  all  the  learning  he  may  pos- 
sess, or  all  the  eloquence  he  may  display,  will  not' 
make  amends  for  the  lack  of  propriety  which  he 
e\'inces.  I  know  that  some  will  be  ready  to  fling  at 
me  the  quotation  about  being  "  content  to  dwell  in 
decencies  forever."  But  I  protest  that  it  is  not  need- 
ful to  be  dull  in  order  to  be  decent ;  and  I  altogether 
deny  that  in  order  to  do  men  good,  one  must  put  on 
the  cap,  and  ring  the  bells  of  the  fool.  "  It  is  pitiful 
to  court  a  grin,  when  we  should  woo  a  soul ;"  and, 
however  much  one  may  enjoy  the  witicisms  of  the 
clown  in  other  places,  common  sense  says  that  the 
preacher,  with  the  Word  of  God  before  him,  and  im- 
mortal souls  seeking  life  and  comfort  at  his  lips,  should 
be  at  least  serious. 

But  I  may  not  conclude  without  reminding  you, 
that  even  these  prerequisites  which  I  have  enumera- 
ted, will  not  make  a  preacher.  I  do  not  believe  that 
any  one  can  rise  to  the  highest  efficiency  in  the  pulpit 
without  them,  but  still  alone  they  will  not  suffice. 
They  must  be  all  vitalized  and  concentrated  on  one  ob- 
ject by  the  consecration  of  the  man  to  the  service  of 
Christ,  and  of  his  fellow-men  in  the  work  of  the  min- 
istry.    They  are  the  separate  strands,  but  they  must 


^8  THE  MINISTRY  OF    THE    WORD, 

be  spun  together  into  one  by  the  intense  love  which 
the  preacher  has,  on  the  one  hand  for  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  and  on  the  other  for  human  souls.  Thus 
"  the  cords  of  a  man,"  manifold  though  they  be,  be- 
come unified  into  "  the  bond  of  love  "  wherewith  the 
hearers  are  to  be  drawn  to  God.  Let  this  never  be 
forgotten  by  us,  for  it  is  this  only  that  can  bring  our 
natural  talents  or  acquired  abilities  to  bear  upon  our 
work.  Still,  the  question  addressed  to  him  who  would 
become  a  preacher,  is  that  which  was  three  times 
pressed  upon  the  humble  Peter,  "  Lovest  thou  me  ?" 
not,  observe,  Lovest  thou  the  work?  but, "  Lovest  thou 
me  f  and  when  we  can  answer,  "  Thou  knowest  all 
things,  Thou  knowest  that  I  love  Thee,"  we  have  at 
once  the  commission  and  the  qualification  to  feed  the 
sheep  and  the  lambs  of  the  flock,  for  that  love  will 
consecrate  the  whole  man,  and  make  him  all  magnetic. 


LECTURE  IV. 

THE  THEME  AND  RANGE  OF  THE  PULPIT. 


LECTURE  IV. 

THE  THEME  AND  RANGE  OF  THE  PULPIT. 

^T^HE  special  work  which  as  ministers  we  have 
-■-  to  do,  is  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel.  We  have 
been  "  allowed  of  God,"  like  Paul,  "  to  be  put  in  trust 
with  the  Gospel  ;"*  and  to  us  also,  is  committed  "  the 
ministry  of  reconciliation ;  to  wit,  that  God  was  in 
Christ,  reconciling  the  world  unto  himself,  not  imput- 
ing their  trespasses  unto  them."-f'  It  is  of  the  highest 
importance,  therefore,  that  we  should  rightly  under- 
stand the  theme  which  we  have  to  treat,  and  the 
range  which  it  commands. 

The  Gospel  is  a  message  of  good  news.  It  takes 
for  granted  that  men  are  sinners,  under  sentence,  and 
carrying  in  themselves  a  nature  that  is  prone  to  evil, 
and  averse  to  good ;  and  it  brings  to  them  an  assur- 
ance that  they  may  be  forgiven  and  renewed,  through 
faith  in  Jesus  Christ.  Thus  the  Lord  himself  said  to 
Nicodemus,  "  As  Moses  lifted  up  the  serpent  in  the 
wilderness,  even  so  must  the  Son  of  man  be  lifted  up, 
that  whosoever  believeth  in  Him  should  not  perish,  but 
have  eternal  life.  For  God  so  loved  the  world 
that  He  gave  His  only  begotten  Son,  that  whosoever 


*  I  Thessalonians  ii.  4.  t  2  Corinthians  v.  19. 

4*  (Si) 


82  THE  MINISTRY  OF   THE    WORD. 

believeth  in  Him  should  not  perish,  but  have  ever- 
lasting hfe."*  And  again  in  connection  with  the  in- 
troduction to  Him  of  the  Greeks  at  Jerusalem,  He 
said,  ''And  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up  from  the  earth,  will 
draw  all  men  unto  me."f 

Similarly,  Paul  defines  the  Gospel  to  be  the  setting 
forth  of  Christ  Jesus  by  God,  "  to  be  a  propitiation 
through  faith  in  His  blood,  to  declare  His  righteous- 
ness for  the  remission  of  sins  that  are  past,  through 
the  forbearance  of  God,  to  declare  at  this  time  His 
righteousness,  that  He  might  be  just,  and  the  justifier 
of  him  that  believeth. ":f  So  also,  in  describing  the 
substance  of  his  preaching  to  the  Corinthians  he  says : 
*'  I  delivered  unto  you,  first  of  all,  that  which  I  also 
received,  how  that  Christ  died  for  our  sins,  according 
to  the  Scriptures,  and  that  He  was  buried,  and 
that  He  rose  again  the  third  day,  according  to  the 
Scriptures. "§  And  if  one  should  ask  what  he  means 
by  the  phrase,  "  Christ  died  for  our  sins,"  he  is  an- 
swered by  this  declaration  made  elsewhere,  "  God 
hath  made  Him  to  be  sin  for  us,  who  knew  no  sin ; 
that  we  might  be  made  the  righteousness  of  God  in 
Him. "II  So  important  did  the  great  apostle  deem  this 
truth,  that  he  says  to  the  Corinthians,  "  We  preach 
Christ  crucified  ;"T  and  affirms  that  when  he  went  to 
them  at  first,  ''  he  determined  not  to  know  anything 
among  them,  save  Jesus  Christ,  and  Him  crucified."** 

*  John  iii.  14-16.  t  John  xii.  32. 

\  Romans  iii.  25-26.  §1  Corinthians  xv.  3-5. 

II  2  Corinthians  v.  21.  t  i  Corinthians  i.  23. 

**  I  Corinthians  ii.  2. 


THE  THEME  AND  RANGE  OF  THE  PULPIT.        83 

While  to  the  Galatians  he  says,  "  God  forbid  that  I 
should  glory,  save  in  the  cross  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  by  whom  the  world  is  crucified  unto  me,  and  I 
unto  the  world. ""^ 

Many  more  passages  might  be  quoted  to  the  like 
effect,  all  going  to  show  that  the  central  interest  of 
the  Gospel  is  in  a  person,  namely,  Jesus  Christ ;  in  a 
certain  fact  about  that  person,  namely,  that  He  was 
crucified ;  and  in  the  relation  of  that  fact  on  the  one 
hand  to  God,  and  on  the  other  hand  to  men,  so  that 
human  sinners  believing  in  Jesus,  may  be  righteously 
forgiven,  and  renewed  in  the  spirit  of  their  minds. 

This,  then,  is  the  message  with  which  we  are  en- 
trusted, and  which  it  is  alike  our  privilege  and  our 
duty  to  proclaim  to  men.  But  if  we  have  rightly 
described  it,  then  it  must  be  evident  at  a  glance,  that 
if  we  would  proclaim  it  intelligibly,  we  must  have 
much  to  say  both  about  the  nature  of  Christ's  person, 
and  the  character  of  His  death.  To  call  upon  men  con- 
stantly to  ''come  to  Christ,"  or  to  repeat  perpetually  the 
words  of  Paul  to  the  jailer,  "  Believe  on  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,"  without  at  the  same  time  telling  them  who 
Jesus  is,  and  what  it  is  to  come  to  Him,  and  believe 
on  Him,  is  the  merest  mockery.  It  is  using  the  name 
of  Christ  as  if  it  were  some  cabalistic  charm,  and  re- 
ducing the  Gospel  message  to  a  mere  empty  formula. 
If,  therefore,  we  would  be  effective  preachers,  we 
must  be  ready  to  give  an  answer  to  him  that  asks  us, 
"  Who  is  Jesus,  that  I  may  believe  on  Him  ?  and  what 
was  there  in  His  dying  that  has  any  relation  to  me?" 

But  the  attempt  to  answer  these  questions,  will  bring 

*  Galatians  vi.  14. 


34  THE  MINISTRY  OF   THE    WORD. 

us  at  once  into  the  region  of  doctrine,  and  there  we  are 
met  with  the  popular  cry,  ''  Preach  Christ,  and  leave 
doctrines  alone."  But  how  is  it  possible  to  do  anything 
of  the  kind  ?  The  word  Christ  is  not  a  mere  abstraction. 
It  is  the  name  of  a  person,  and  if  we  attempt  to  tell 
who  or  what  He  is,  we  are  giving  forth  a  doctrine 
about  His  person.  Equally  if  we  endeavor  to  describe 
what  the  significance  of  His  death  is,  we  are  put- 
ting forth  a  doctrine  of  the  atonement.  Thus,  not 
only  those  of  us  who  are  styled  evangelical  are  guilty 
of  doctrinal  preaching.  If  we  shall  say  that  Jesus 
Christ  was  only  a  man,  that  is  a  doctrine  of  His  per- 
son, as  really  as  is  the  assertion  that  in  Him  the  eternal 
Word  was  made  flesh.  If  we  shall  affirm,  that  His 
death  was  nothing  more  than  that  of  a  martyr,  that  is 
a  doctrine  about  Christ's  crucifixion,  as  really  as  is  the 
declaration  that  He  died  the  just  in  the  stead  of  the 
unjust.  If,  again,  we  should  try  to  explain  what  it  is 
to  come  to  Jesus  or  to  believe  on  Him,  the  effort, 
if  successful,  will  issue  in  a  doctrinal  sermon  on  the 
nature  of  faith. 

In  truth,  gentlemen,  there  is  nothing  more  absurd 
than  this  clamor  against  doctrine,  for  they  who  raise 
it  do  not  seem  to  see  that  there  is  beneath  the  cry 
itself  a  doctrine,  to  the  effect  that  it  makes  no  matter 
what  a  man  believes,  if  he  only  say  that  he  is  resting 
upon  Christ.  But  the  Christ  that  saves,  is  the  Christ 
that  is  revealed  in  the  Gospels,  not  the  mere  idea  of 
Him  which  a  man  may  form  in  his  own  mind.  It  is 
not  believing  on  Christ  as  I  have  shaped  Him  for  my- 
self, but  rather  believing  on  the  Christ  that  is  set  be- 


THE  THEME  AND  RANGE  OF  THE  PULPIT.      85 

fore  me  in  the  Gospel,  that  saves  me ;  and  so  it  is  of 
immense  consequence  that  I  should  have  a  right  view 
both  of  His  person  and  work.  If,  therefore,  you  mean 
to  be  successful  preachers,  you  will  do  well  to  shut 
your  ears  to  all  that  senseless  outcry  against  doctrine 
which  has  become  a  part  of  the  most  fashionable  cant 
of  the  day.  One  of  the  most  eloquent  of  living  Eng- 
lish nonconformists,  has  said  very  truly  here  :  "  It  is  im- 
possible to  preach  Christ  without  preaching  dogma, 
unless  I  confine  myself  to  a  bare  recital  of  the  mere 
externals  of  the  history :  and  if  I  could  do  that,  it  were 
no  Gospel.  For  what  of  good  news  is  there  in  the  dry 
chronicle  that  He  lived  and  died,  any  more  than  in 
the  same  bald  record  about  any  other  man?  Is  the 
mere  story  of  His  death  a  gospel  ?  Does  it  not  need 
a  commentary  explanatory  of  the  fact  to  make  it  that  ? 
The  history  becomes  a  gospel  by  the  presence  of  the 
doctrine  as  touching  His  person,  that  He  is  the  Son 
of  God :  as  touching  His  death,  that  it  is  the  sacrifice 
for  the  sins  of  the  world.  Without  so  much  of  dogma, 
the  facts  are  not  seen ;  without  so  much  they  are 
powerless  to  bless  ;  and  our  Gospel  is  of  another  sort, 
or  rather  it  is  not  one  at  all,  unless  we  too  can  declare 
this  as  '  the  gospel  which  we  preached,  how  that 
Christ ' — the  very  name  being  the  condensation  of  a 
whole  system  of  doctrines — '  died  for  our  sins  accord- 
ing to  the  Scriptures.'  ""^ 

*  "  The  Gospel  for  the  Day,"  being  the  President's  address  be- 
fore the  annual  meeting  of  the  Baptist  Union  of  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland,  by  Rev.  Alexander  Maclaren,  Manchester.  Reported 
verbatim  in  "The  Baptist,"  April  30,  1875.  One  of  the  noblest 
discourses  of  a  very  noble  man. 


36  THE  MINISTRY  OF    THE    WORD. 

Unless,  therefore,  you  are  prepared  to  say  some- 
thing very  definite,  both  concerning  the  nature  of 
Christ's  person,  and  concerning  the  character  and  effi- 
cacy of  His  death,  you  had  better  never  enter  the 
pulpit.  The  notion  of  many  seems  to  be  that  vague- 
ness is  the  prime  excellence  in  a  sermon.  They  are 
always  dealing  in  the  indefinite.  You  cannot  make 
out  from  their  words  what,  according  to  their  view, 
Christ  is,  whether  incarnate  God,  or  simply  the  high- 
est style  of  man  ;  and  though  they  can  speak  of  the 
"  cross  of  Christ,"  and  of  ''  Christ  crucified,"  you  can- 
not but  feel  that  the  words  to  them  are  mere  empty 
symbols.  Now,  all  such  preaching  is  a  waste  of 
words.  Gentlemen,  it  is  the  positive  element  in  your 
teaching  that  will,  through  God's  spirit,  be  powerful 
with  your  hearers  ;  and  if  you  cannot  give  any  distinct 
utterance  as  to  who  Christ  is,  or  what  He  has  done, 
then  all  your  criticisms  of  the  ordinary  evangelical 
doctrines  will  be  valueless  to  the  anxious  inquirer,  and 
may  be  even  injurious  in  unsettling  the  mind  of  some 
one  who  has  been  but  slenderly  ballasted  with  bibli- 
cal knowledge. 

Preach  doctrine,  therefore.  Do  not  proclaim 
it  as  if  it  were  the  Saviour,  but  let  your  doctrine 
define  the  Saviour  to  the  minds  of  those  who  wait 
upon  your  ministry.  Do  not  make  your  treatment 
of  doctrine  an  occasion  for  metaphysical  display, 
but  seek  rather  by  your  dogmatic  teachings  to  give 
clearness  and  force  to  the  apprehension  which  your 
hearers  have  of  truth.  Above  all,  seek  to  have  your 
doctrines  vitalized  by  their  connection  with  Christ,  so 


THE  THEME  AND  RANGE  OF  THE  PULPI'i.      8/ 

that  they  may  appear  either  to  flow  from  Him,  or  to  lead 
up  to  Him,  and  then  they  will  give  to  your  discourses 
a  symmetry  and  a  strength  which  otherwise  they 
could  not  possess ;  and  save  them  from  degenerating 
into  soft,  molluscous,  and  plastic  things,  which  may 
be  squeezed  by  the  hearer  into  any  shape,  or  turned 
by  him  into  any  direction.  "  He  who  teaches,"  says 
Bautain,  "  has  always  a  doctrine  to  expound."*  It  is 
impossible  to  give  a  pupil  any  correct  idea  either  of 
philosophy  or  of  any  one  of  the  natural  sciences,  unless 
there  be  connected  with  the  facts  which  are  set  be- 
fore his  mind,  a  commentary  of  doctrine.  The  name 
of  Kepler  is  a  name  and  nothing  more,  until  we  have 
associated  it  with  those  laws,  that  is  doctrines,  of  mo- 
tion of  which  he  w^as  the  earliest  exponent ;  and  the 
place  of  Newton  in  the  history  of  science  cannot  be 
described  by  us,  unless  we  give  an  exposition  of  that 
doctrine  of  gravitation  which  was  his  generalization 
from  the  facts  of  nature.  Nay  more,  we  cannot  en- 
force the  plainest  moral  precept  without  finding  our- 
selves ultimately  in  the  region  of  doctrine ;  for  if  we 
urge  upon  a  man  the  duty  of  honesty,  and  he  should 
ask  us  on  what  ground  we  do  so,  then,  whether  we  re- 
ply, "  because  honesty  is  the  best  policy,"  or  '^  because 
honesty  is  commanded  by  God,"  or  '^  because  honesty 
is  required  by  the  greatest  good  of  the  greatest  num- 
ber," our  answer  is  a  doctrine.  Every  practical 
precept  must  stand  thus  upon  some  doctrine  ;  and  so 
we  are  forced  to  conclude  that  this  modern  antipathy 

*  "The  Art  of  Extempore  Speaking,"  by  M.  Baiitg-in.     Scrib- 
ner's  edition,  p.  141. 


88  THE  MINISTRY  OF   THE    WORD. 

to  doctrine  is  not  so  much  an  opposition  to  doctrine 
in  itself,  as  to  those  doctrines  which  evangelical  preach- 
ers love  to  set  forth.  And  in  that  aspect  of  it,  the 
prejudice  is  not  so  modern  after  all,  for  it  had  an  ex- 
istence even  in  the  days  of  Paul,  whose  doctrine  of 
Christ  crucified  was  to  the  Jews  a  "  stumbling-block," 
and  to  the  Greeks  "  foolishness." 

In  spite,  therefore,  of  all  that  is  said  by  the  superfi- 
cial to  the  contrary,  let  your  preaching  to  sinners  be 
an  exposition  to  them  of  the  doctrine  of  the  cross. 
Be  not  content  merely  with  the  presentation  to  them 
of  the  incarnation.  Paul  did  not  say,  "  I  determined 
not  to  know  anything  among  you  but  Jesus  Christ," 
and  then  stop  there !  He  added  with  special  empha- 
sis, "  and  Him  crucified,"  for  in  the  union  of  the  two, 
and  the  blessing  which  flowed  therefrom,  the  Gospel 
in  his  view  consisted.  Even  if  we  accept  the  incarna- 
tion as  a  fact,  the  Lord  Jesus  could  have  had  no  sav- 
ing relationship  to  us,  if  He  had  not  died  for  our  sins  ; 
while  again.  His  death  could  have  had  no  value  as  an 
atonement  for  sin,  if  He  had  not  been  incarnate  God. 
It  is  not  simply  that  one  died  for  us,  but  it  is  that  He 
who  so  died  was  such  an  one  as  the  Son  of  God.  This 
is  the  essence  of  the  atonement,  which  '*  declared  God's 
righteousness,"  even  in  the  forgiveness  of  a  believing 
sinner.  Here  is  mercy  righteously  manifested  to  the 
guilty. 

Wherever  else  you  look,  in  air,  on  earth,  or  in  the 
sea,  there  is  law — hard,  remorseless  law — good  as  long 
as  you  obey  it,  but  relentless  the  moment  you  run 
counter  to   its   requirements.      Combustion   has   no 


THE  THEME  AND  RANGE  OF  THE  PULPIT.        89 

mercy  if  you  thrust  your  finger  into  the  flames ; 
gravitation  has  no  consideration  for  the  consequences 
on  you  if  you  step  over  a  precipice  ;  the  sea  knows  no 
compassion  if  you  fall  into  its  depths.  Nowhere  in 
nature  can  you  discern  anything  of  mercy  to  the  law- 
breaker.    Its  aspect  is,  in  this  regard,  very  terrible. 

But  in  the  cross  of  Christ  there  is  a  provision  made 
for  showing  mercy  to  the  sinner ;  while  yet  the  law 
which  the  sinner  has  broken  is  honored  and  "  estab- 
lished.""^ There  is  love  in  it  that  "  passeth  knowl- 
edge." And  we  must  take  heed  so  to  preach  it,  that 
men  shall  recognize  that  it  flowed  from  the  heart  of 
God  as  He  yearned  for  their  deliverance  from  the  con- 
sequences of  their  sins.  The  death  of  Christ  did  not 
purchase  God's  love  for  the  world ;  but  it  opened  up 
a  way  in  which  that  love  could  be  righteously  exer- 
cised in  the  forgiving  of  sin.  Thus  these  two  princi- 
ples, love  and  righteousness,  are  the  two  great  ele- 
ments of  the  power  of  the  cross.  The  love  fills  and 
melts  the  sinner's  heart ;  and  the  righteousness  satis- 
fies his  conscience,  so  that  as  soon  as  he  believes  the 
truth  which  is  in  Jesus  Christ  and  Him  crucified,  he 
is  filled  with  a  joy  which  is  unspeakable,  and  a  peace 
which  is  perennial. 

That  very  faculty  within  him  which  before  up- 
braided him  with  his  guilt,  now  rests  satisfied  in  the 
assurance  of  a  pardon  which  is  sealed  by  righteousness. 
Without  that  seal,  however,  he  could  have  no  abiding 
comfort,  and  so,  even  if  the  atonement  had  not  been 


*  Romans  iii.  31. 


go  THE  MINISTRY  OF   THE    WORD. 

needed  to  meet  the  demands  of  the  divine  law,  it  would 
be  required  to  satisfy  the  conscience  of  the  sinner  him- 
self. He  cannot  have  permanent  peace  in  a  pardon 
that  ignores  justice.  But  because  through  the  cross 
the  love  and  righteousness  of  God  are  seen  harmo- 
niously working  out  his  forgiveness,  he  is  at  rest. 

Let  us  take  care  lest  in  our  preaching  we  "  put 
asunder  "  those  two  things  which  in  the  Gospel  God 
has  so  thoroughly  '^joined  together."  We  must  not 
exalt  the  love  without  making  mention  of  the  right- 
eousness. Indeed,  if  there  were  no  righteousness, 
making  the  death  imperative  in  order  to  the  salvation 
of  men,  it  is  hard  to  see  how  there  could  be  love  in 
the  dying.  But  neither,  on  the  other  hand,  must  we 
exalt  the  righteousness  in  such  a  way  as  to  obscure 
the  love.  In  the  one  case  the  Gospel  will  be  made  to 
wear  an  aspect  of  indifference  to  evil,  and  the  hearer 
may  fall  into  the  terrible  mistake  of  supposing  that 
the  more  he  sins,  the  more  the  grace  of  God  will 
abound  toward  him.  In  the  other  it  will  be  made  to 
assume  an  appearance  of  terror,  which  will  make  men 
"  exceedingly  fear  and  quake,"  like  the  Israelites  at 
the  base  of  Sinai.  But  when  we  give  each  element 
its  proper  prominence,  the  love  attracts  to  God,  and 
the  righteousness  restrains  from  sin.  The  man  of 
science  takes  a  piece  of  limestone,  and  bringing  two 
different  kinds  of  gases  to  bear  upon  it,  he  makes  it 
glow  with  a  brightness  that  turns  night  well-nigh  into 
day.  Something  like  that,  only  in  a  spiritual  way,  is 
wrought  on  the  stony  heart  of  the  sinner  when  he 
understands  and   believes  what  the  cross  of  Christ 


THE  THEME  AND  RANGE  OF  THE  PULPIT      gi 

proclaims  to  him,  for  as  the  love  and  righteousness 
which  it  reveals  come  streaming  in  upon  him,  they 
dispel  the  darkness  of  his  misery,  and  irradiate  him 
with  the  light  of  heaven's  own  joy. 

This  was  the  Gospel  which,  as  proclaimed  by  Paul, 
was  demonstrated  to  be  the  power  of  God  unto  salva- 
tion. This  was  the  Gospel  which,  as  preached  by 
Luther,  roused  Europe  from  the  slumber  of  centuries 
and  shook  popery  to  its  centre.  And  if  we  to-day 
would  re-clothe  it  with  its  ancient  might,  we  must 
hold  and  teach  it  as  Paul  did.  They  tell  us,'  indeed, 
that  we  must  adapt  our  sermons  to  the  necessities  of 
our  age  ;  but,  while  in  some  minor  respects  the  advice 
is  good,  we  must  beware  of  supposing  that  we  are 
either  to  add  to,  or  take  from,  those  essential  ele- 
ments in  which  the  Gospel,  as  revealed  in  the  New 
Testament,  consists.  The  preaching  most  adapted 
to  any  age  is  t/ie  preaching  of  the  Gospel,  not  in  dry, 
dogmatic  formulae,  nor  in  fierce  and  controversial 
spirit,  but  in  the  way  of  simple  and  positive  state- 
ment. Let  us  tell  men  that  ''  Christ  Jesus  came  into 
the  world  to  save  sinners ;  "  let  us  commend  to  them 
the  love  of  God  "  in  that  while  we  were  yet  sinners, 
Christ  died  for  us."  Let  us  teach  that  they  are  to  be 
saved,  not  by  sacramental  efficacy,  or  ritual  observ- 
ances, or  even  moral  worth,  but  simply  and  alone 
through  faith  in  Him  who  loved  them  and  gave  Him- 
self for  them.  That  is  the  Gospel  which  every  age 
needs,  and  its  adaptation  to  the  human  heart  is  made 
gloriously  apparent  wherever  it  is  earnestly  pro- 
claimed. 


g2  THE  MINISTRY  OF   THE    WORD. 

We  may  learn  much  here  from  the  example  of  Paul 
on  his  visit  to  Corinth.  There  he  found  two  classes  of 
minds,  the  representatives  of  two  opposite  tendencies. 
The  one  sought  a  philosophy,  and  the  other  a  sign. 
Yet  Paul  preached  to  both  "  Jesus  Christ  and  Him 
crucified."  That  which  they  did  not  wish,  was  yet  that 
which  they  most  needed.  And  so  to-day  ;  in  the  face 
of  rationalism  and  ritualism,  whose  supporters  are  the 
legitimate  successors  of  the  Greek  and  the  Jew  in 
apostolic  times,  we  shall  find  that  all  our  power  in  the 
pulpit  will  lie,  not  in  fierce  controversy,  nor  in  trim- 
ming concession,  but  in  the  plain,  earnest  enforcement 
of  the  good  old  truth  that  "  Jesus  Christ  died  for  our 
sins  according  to  the  Scriptures,  and  that  he  was 
buried,  and  that  he  rose  again  the  third  day  accord- 
ing to  the  Scriptures."  As  Mr.  Maclaren  has  said,  in 
the  address  from  which  I  have  already  quoted,  ^^  There 
is  as  true  adaptation  in  rowing  against  or  athwart  the 
stream  as  in  going  with  it ;  and  unless  this  age  has 
got  rid  of  the  one-sidedness  which  has  always  hitherto 
affected  the  current  beliefs  of  a  period,  perhaps  the 
truest  adaptation  of  a  message  to  its  wants,  is  to  bring 
into  prominence  what  it  overlooks,  and  to  emphasize 
the  proclamation  of  what  it  does  not  believe.""^  Preach 
the  Gospel  as  Paul  preached  it,  and  you  may  look  for 
a  success  similar  to  that  which  crowned  his  labors. 

Just  as  I  was  entering  on  my  ministry  at  Liverpool, 
I  fell  in  with  a  copy  of  Spenser's  "  Pastoral  Sketches," 


*  Maclaren's  Address  at  the  Annual  Meeting  of  the  Baptist 
Union,  as  before. 


THE  THEME  AND  RANGE  OF  THE  PULPIT,      g^ 

with  an  Introductory  Essay  on  the  Preaching  of  the 
Gospel,  by  the  late  Mr.  James,  of  Birmingham.  I 
was  in  a  mood  to  be  impressed,  and  a  severe  domes- 
tic affliction  through  which  I  was  then  passing  made 
me  more  susceptible  than  even  the  beginning  of  a 
new  pastorate  would  of  itself  have  rendered  me. 
So  I  was  profoundly  moved  by  Mr.  James's  arguments 
and  appeals.  I  have  since  read  them,  again  and 
again,  and  have  seen  little  remarkable  about  them  ; 
but,  as  perused  then,  they  led  me  to  set  my  whole 
ministry  to  the  key  of  the  cross.  I  tried  simply, 
faithfully,  and  affectionately  to  tell  "  the  old,  old 
story  of  Jesus  and  His  love."  Very  soon  inquirers 
came  to  talk  with  me.  I  was  cheered  and  encour- 
aged by  receiving  new  converts  at  every  communion. 
This  kept  me  from  ever  yielding  to  the  temptation  to 
turn  aside  from  the  great  central  themes,  and  my  suc- 
cess, such  as  it  was,  in  that  sphere,  was  owing,  I  am 
thoroughly  persuaded,  to  the  fact  that  I  tried  always 
to  keep  the  cross  in.  sight,  and  sought  always  to  hide 
myself  behind  my  Lord. 

When,  again,  I  was  crossing  the  Atlantic  to  take 
charge  of  my  present  congregation,  not  one  of  whom 
I  had  ever  seen,  I  found  the  ''Life  of  Chalmers"  in 
the  library  of  the  ship,  and  amid  the  anxiety  and 
suspense  of  my  heart,  as  I  felt  that  I  had  not  "  passed 
this  way  heretofore,"  I  was  greatly  cheered  and  en- 
couraged by  the  account  of  the  effects  produced  by 
the  preaching  of  that  great  man  in  his  later  life  at 
Kilmany,  and  in  his  glorious  ministry  at  Glasgow. 
This  led  me  to  resolve  anew   that    in    the  ministry 


94  THE  MINISTRY  OF   THE    WORD. 

of  the  Broadway  Tabernacle,  I  would,  as  in  Liverpool, 
seek  to  preach  so  that  my  hearers  ''  should  see  no 
man  save  Jesus  only,"  and  if  I  have  had  any  measure 
of  success,  this  is  the  secret  of  it  all.  I  feel  almost 
as  if  it  were  an  impertinence  to  speak  thus.  Why 
should  I  presume,  as  it  were,  to  endorse  the  Gospel 
thus  ?  and  yet,  as  an  elder  brother,  I  may  surely  tell 
you  of  my  limited  experience,  in  the  hope  that  in 
after  years  you  will  have  to  say  to  me,  *'  Now,  we 
believe  it,  not  for  thy  saying,"  but  because  we  have 
tried  it  ourselves,  and  we  know  that  it  is  ''  the  power 
of  God  unto  salvation  to  every  one  that  believeth." 

But  the  minister  of  the  Gospel  in  these  days  is  a 
pastor  as  well  as  a  preacher,  and  so  he  has  to  do  with 
those  who  are  already  Christians,  as  well  as  with 
those  who  are  "  ignorant  and  out  of  the  way."  It 
will  be  his  business  not  merely  to  stand  at  the  ''  wick- 
et-gate "  and  help  men  through  that  as  they  set  out 
on  their  pilgrimage  to  the  ''  celestial  city  ;  "  but  also 
to  make  up  to  them  afterwards  at  their  several  stages 
on  their  journey,  and  to  give  them  such  assistance 
and  direction  as  they  need.  The  ''  Evangelist  "  who 
goes  from  place  to  place  may  content  himself  with 
performing  the  office  of  John  the  Baptist,  esteeming  his 
joy  fulfilled  when  he  has  introduced  the  sinner  to  his 
Saviour.  But  the  Christian  pastor  has  to  "  go  before 
his  flock,"  and  "  lead  them  out  "  and  ''  find  pasture  " 
for  them  appropriate  to  their  nourishment.  He  has  to 
watch  over  and  encourage  the  development  of  char- 
acter in  the  Christian,  as  well  as  to  call  on  the  sinner 


THE   THEME  AND  RANGE  OF  THE  PULPIT. 


95 


to  "  repent  and  be  converted  ;  "  and  while,  of  course, 
he  will  greatly  rejoice  over  the  conversion  of  sinners, 
he  will  rejoice  no  less  over  the  growth  in  grace  of 
those  who  are  already  in  Christ.  He  must  be  on  his 
guard  against  devoting  himself  to  either  of  these  de- 
partments of  his  work  to  the  exclusion  of  the  other, 
for  only  in  the  proper  prosecution  of  them  both,  the 
symmetry  and  completeness  of  his  ministry  will  be 
secured. 

Judging  from  my  own  experience,  you  will  be 
most  apt  to  set  yourselves  in  the  beginning  of  your 
career,  to  secure  the  conversion  of  sinners  ;  while, 
perhaps,  as  you  advance  in  the  work,  you  may  be 
tempted  to  run  into  the  other  extreme,  and  preach 
only  to  those  who  are  already  in  the  Church.  But 
in  neither  case  will  there  be  a  "  right  division  "  of  the 
word  of  truth  ;  and  your  aim  ought  to  be,  on  every 
occasion,  to   give  to   each   ''  his   portion   in  season." 

Still,  as  there  is  a  tendency  in  these  days  among 
many  to  restrict  the  ministry  to  one  phase  of  truth 
merely,  I  may  be  forgiven  if  I  dwell  for  a  moment 
or  two  on  the  importance  of  seeking  in  your  dis- 
courses the  spiritual  profit  of  that  large  class  of  your 
hearers  who  have  made  an  open  confession  of  their 
faith  in  Christ,  and  who  are  needing  either  to  be 
warned  against  dangers  which  threaten  to  impair 
their  strength,  or  to  be  encouraged  under  trials  that  are 
pressing  heavily  upon  their  hearts.  It  has  come  to  be 
taken  for  granted  in  many  quarters,  that  the  success 
of  a  ministry  is  to  be  gauged  simply  by  the  number  of 
conversions  which  have  occurred  in  its  course ;  and 


^6  THE  MINISTRY  OF  THE   WORD. 

this  has  led  too  many  churches  to  bend  all  their 
energies  toward  the  securing  of  such  accessions  to 
their  membership,  as  if  that  were  the  sole  end  to  be 
attained.  Pastor,  Sabbath-school  teachers,  office- 
bearers, members,  labor  and  pray  in  public,  and  ex- 
hort in  private,  in  order  that  they  may  lead  men  to 
Christ,  and  to  a  public  confession  of  Him,  and  then, 
when  they  have  got  their  names  on  the  communion 
roll,  they  leave  them  to  take  care  of  themselves,  and 
they  go  and  look  after  others.  But,  in  reality,  this  is 
only  the  beginning  with  them,  and  to  leave  them 
thus  untended  is  the  greatest  possible  mistake. 

We  cry  out  against  the  heedlessness  of  those 
parents  who  so  neglect  their  offspring  as  to  leave 
them  an  easy  prey  to  the  diseases  which  make  such 
havoc  on  little  children.  But  ''  infant  mortality  "  is 
by  no  means  unknown  in  our  churches,  any  more 
than  in  our  cities,  and  I  fear  that  the  disappearance 
of  many  who  were  once  written  down  as  "  hopefully 
converted  "  is  due  to  the  fact  that  so  many  of  our 
ministers  and  their  coadjutors  never  concern  them- 
selves with  any  other  topic  than  conversion.  Now 
that  is  unquestionably  a  most  important  theme,  and 
the  direction  of  inquirers  is  an  interesting  and  in- 
tensely exciting  department  of  ministerial  labor ;  but 
it  is  not  the  whole  work  of  the  pastor.  ''  Doth  the 
ploughman  plough  all  day  to  sow?  doth  he  open  and 
break  the  clods  of  his  ground  ?  When  he  hath  made 
plain  the  face  thereof,  doth  he  not  cast  abroad  the 
fitches,  and  scatter  the  cummin,  and  cast  in  the  prin- 
cipal wheat  and  the  appointed  barley  and  the  rye  in 


THE   THEME  AND  RANGE  OF  THE  PULPIT. 


97. 


their  place  ?  For  his  God  doth  instruct  him  to  dis- 
cretion, and  doth  teach  him.""^  Something  more  than 
ploughing  is  required  for  successful  husbandry ;  and 
more  is  needed  in  the  culture  of  a  parish  than  the 
preaching  of  conversion,  or  the  saying  to  men,  "  Be- 
lieve on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  ye  shall  be  saved." 
Faith  is  good ;  is,  indeed,  indispensable,  but  it  is 
only  the  first  round  of  the  ladder,  and  we  ought  not 
to  be  content  until  our  hearers  have  added  to  it, 
courage,  and  knowledge,  and  temperance,  and  pa- 
tience, and  godliness,  and  brotherly  kindness,  and 
love,  for  in  that  way  alone  can  they  ''  make  their 
calling  and  election  sure." 

Thus  in  our  ministry  we  have  not  simply  to  make 
known  to  men  the  way  of  salvation,  as  Peter  did  on 
the  day  of  Pentecost,  and  in  the  house  of  Cornelius, 
and  as  Paul  did  to  the  jailer,  and  to  his  hearers  in  Thes- 
salonica  and  Berea,  but  w^e  have  also  to  do  a  work 
not  unlike  that  which  these  apostles  performed  in  the 
Epistles  which  came  afterwards  from  their  pens.  Or 
as  Paul  has  said  to  Timothy,  we  have  to  "  reprove, 
rebuke,  and  exhort  with  all  long-suffering  and  doc- 
trine."f  We  are  to  expose  prevailing  sins,  warn  against 
existing  temptations,  incite  to  higher  holiness,  and 
stimulate  to  the  performance  of  '^  works  of  faith  and 
labors  of  love." 

Yet,  not  unfrequently,  w^hen  a  sermon  has  been 
preached  exposing  some  social  evil,  and  unfolding 
the  remedy  by  which  alone  it  can  be  removed,  the 


*  Isaiah  xxviii   24-26.  f  2  Tim.  iv.  2. 

5 


98 


THE  MINISTRY  OF    THE    WORD. 


minister  will  be  told  that  he  is  going  aside  from  his 
proper  work  as  an  ambassador  for  Christ,  and  some 
earnest  but  narrow  soul  may  say  to  him,  ^'  Preach 
the  Gospel,  and  leave  these  subjects  alone;  remember 
him  who  said,  '  I  determined  not  to  know  anything 
among  you  save  Jesus  Christ  and  Him  crucified.'  " 

Now,  as  is  abundantly  evident  from  what  I  have 
already  said,  I  find  no  fault  with  the  sentiment  of 
these  words.  Nay,  rather  when  rightly  understood, 
they  strike  the  key-note  of  every  evangelical  minis- 
try ;  but  my  complaint  is,  that  those  who  quote  them 
for  our  benefit,  seem  to  have  no  correct  idea  of  the 
meaning  which  Paul  himself  attached  to  them.  He 
did  not  intend  to  say  that  every  time  he  opened 
his  lips,  he  would  tell  over  again  the  story  of  the 
Cross,  but  rather  that  as  the  means  of  saving  men 
from  their  sins,  he  would  set  nothing  else  before  them 
than  Jesus  Christ  and  Him  crucified  ;  and  further, 
that  the  Cross  was  to  be  the  great  centre  of  his  teach- 
ing, from  which  he  claimed  and  exercised  the  liberty 
of  treating  every  subject  in  the  whole  circumference 
of  human  duty  and  experience. 

I  wonder  what  those  who  would  restrict  us  to  the  sim- 
ple invitation  of  sinners  to  come  to  Christ,  as  if  that 
alone  were  evangelical  preaching,  would  say  to  the 
Apostle  James,  if  he  were  to  occupy  a  modern  pul- 
pit and  give  his  epistle  as  a  sermon.  Nay,  I  wonder 
what  they  make  of  the  very  Epistle  of  Paul,  from 
which  their  quotation  is  taken,  for  within  the  short 
compass  of  its  sixteen  chapters  he  discusses  such  ques- 
tions as  the  propriety  of  marriage  in  a  time  of  peril, 
the  eating  of  meat  offered  to  idols,  the  going  to  law 


THE   THEME  AND  RANGE  OF  THE  PULPIT,      qq 

before  heathen  tribunals,  the  right  manner  of  con- 
ducting public  worship,  the  evil  of  ecclesiastical  divi- 
sions, and  even  so  commonplace  a  matter  as  a  benev- 
olent collection.  Were  Paul  and  James  unevangeli- 
cal  ?  No  ;  they  were  in  all  this  most  truly  preaching 
the  Gospel,  because  they  were  bringing  the  principles 
which  underlie  its  message,  to  bear  upon  the  circum- 
stances and  conduct  of  those  whom  they  addressed. 

The  truth  is,  that  the  Gospel  is  related  to  every- 
thing which  affects  the  happiness  and  the  holiness  of 
men  ;  and  its  minister  not  only  may,  but  ought  to 
show  its  relations  to  these  things  in  his  discourses. 
Only  let  him  see  to  it  that  when  he  is  seeking  to 
elevate  men,  he  uses  the  Cross  as  his  lever,  and  then 
while  his  discourses  are  helpful  to  believers,  they  will 
at  the  same  time  be  the  means  of  awakening  and 
converting  sinners.  There  is  a  way  of  getting  at  the 
hearts  and  consciences  of  the  unconverted,  even  when 
we  are  furnishing  guidance  and  encouragement  to  the 
true  Christian  ;  and  on  the  other  hand,  we  may  deal 
with  sinners  in  such  a  way  as  shall  also  stimulate  and 
quicken  saints. 

Indeed,  if  we  care  to  study  true  wisdom  here,  we 
shall  aim  at  having  in  every  sermon  a  word  for  every 
hearer ;  and  if  you  ask  me  how  that  is  to  be  attained, 
I  will  set  you  to  the  study  of  those  Epistles  to  which 
I  have  already  so  frequently  referred.  Whatever 
may  be  the  immediate  object  which  Paul  is  seeking, 
he  tries  to  attain  that  object  by  the  Cross. 

Thus,  in  reproving  the  unseemly  divisions  that  had 
sprung  up  in  the  Corinthian  Church,  he  sa}^s :  ''Is 
Christ  divided?  was  Paul  crucified   for  3/ou,  or  were 


lOO  THE  MINISTRY  OF  THE   WORD. 

you  baptized  in  the  name  of  Paul?""^  Now,  weighty 
as  that  was  as  an  argument  for  union  and  brotherly- 
love,  it  has  in  it,  also,  an  incidental  preaching  of  the 
Gospel  so  simple,  yet  so  full,  that  some  poor  sinner 
might  have  caught  at  it  with  joy. 

Again,  in  enforcing  the  duty  of  maintaining  purity 
of  discipline  in  the  Church,  he  uses  this  plea  :  ''  Purge 
out,  therefore,  the  old  leaven,  that  ye  may  be  a  new 
lump  as  ye  are  unleavened.  For  even  Christ  our 
passover  is  sacrificed  for  us  ;  therefore,  let  us  keep 
the  feast,  not  with  old  leaven,  neither  with  the  leaven 
of  malice  and  wickedness,  but  with  the  unleavened 
bread  of  sincerity  and  truth."  f  Now,  there  is  a  whole 
syllogism  wrapped  up  in  the  illustration  that  is  here 
employed  ;  but  what  I  wish  you  particularly  to  observe 
is,  that  the  centre  of  the  illustration  itself,  is  a  decla- 
ration of  the  Gospel.  So  that  while  aiming  after  the 
purifying  of  the  Church,  he  does  at  the  same  time 
clearly  and  simply  unfold  the  great  truth  that  Christ 
is  sacrificed  for  us. 

In  a  similar  manner,  while  denouncing  the  sin  of 
fornication,  he  puts  the  matter  thus :  ''  What  ?  know 
ye  not  that  your  body  is  the  temple  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  which  is  in  you,  which  ye  have  of  God,  and  ye 
are  not  your  own  ?  for  ye  are  bought  with  a  price : 
therefore,  glorify  God  in  your  body  and  in  your  spirit, 
which  are  God's.":]:  Here  again,  you  observe,  while 
exposing  sin,  he  does  it  in  such  a  way  as  at  the  same 
time  to  preach  "  Christ  crucified."  They  say  that 
when  one  of  the  most  interesting  ruins  in  the  city 

*  I  Corinthians  i.  13.  t  i  Corinthians  v.  7,  8. 

X  I  Corinthians  vi.  19,  20. 


THE   THEME  AND  RANGE  OF  THE  PULPIT.    \o\ 

of  Rome  was  in  danger  of  destruction,  because  the 
neighboring  inhabitants  were  continually  removing 
stones  from  it  for  their  own  buildings,  the  reigning 
Pontiff  put  a  stop  to  the  vandalism  of  the  people,  by 
consecrating  the  venerable  remains  and  setting  up 
the  Cross  in  the  midst  of  them.  Now,  similarly  here, 
Paul  has  put  the  Cross  in  the  centre  of  human  life, 
and  so  has  made  it  sacrilege  for  the  believer  to  take 
any  portion  of  his  being,  or  any  fraction  of  his  time 
and  give  it  to  another  than  his  Lord.  But  he  could 
not  put  the  Cross  there  without  letting  it  be  seen, 
and  so  here  again,  he  has  preached  the  Gospel  most 
effectively,  even  when  he  was  seeking  specially  to 
warn  his  readers  against  a  particular  sin. 

But  to  mention  only  one  more  instance ;  when  he 
is  pleading  the  cause  of  the  poor  saints  at  Jerusalem, 
he  is  careful  so  to  do  it,  as  at  the  same  time  to  give  a 
very  striking  and  comprehensive  summary  of  the  Gos- 
pel. Thus  he  writes :  "  For  ye  know  the  grace  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  that  though  He  was  rich,  yet 
for  your  sakes  He  became  poor,  that  ye  through  His 
poverty  might  be  rich."*  It  is  singular  that  such  an 
expression — so  beautiful,  so  suggestive,  and  every 
way  so  worthy  of  the  sacrifice  it  describes — should 
have  come  thus  incidentally  from  the  pen  of  the 
Apostle.  He  was  presenting  a  motive  to  the  Cor- 
inthians to  induce  them  to  give  a  good  collection, 
and  lo !  at  the  same  time,  he  preaches  the  Gospel  in 
language  which  is,  even  with  him,  unusual  in  its  en- 
ergy and  elevation. 


*  2  Corinthians  viii.  9. 


102  THE  MINISTRY  OF  THE   WORD. 

Now,  all  this  shows  us  what  Paul  meant  by  preach- 
ing "Christ  and  Him  crucified  ;"  and  lets  us  see  how, 
even  when  we  are  dealing  with  those  "  called  to  be 
saints,"  we  may  have  also  words  "  in  season  "  for  the 
sinner.  For  the  Epistles  to  the  Corinthians  are  not 
singular  in  the  characteristic  which  I  have  endeavored 
to  point  out  to  you.  The  other  letters  of  Paul,  and 
those  of  his  fellow-apostles,  John,  Peter,  and  James, 
are  equally  remarkable  in  this  respect ;  and  if,  with 
the  instances  which  I  have  particularized,  in  mind, 
you  study  these  productions,  you  will  see  that  evan- 
gelical preaching  is  something  far  more  important 
than  the  mere  iteration  to  men  of  the  Gospel  invita- 
tion to  "come  to  Jesus." 

The  Gospel,  as  Paul  preached  it,  was  far-reaching 
enough  in  its  application  to  touch  at  every  point  the 
conduct  and  experiences  of  men.  The  Cross,  as  he 
used  it,  was  an  instrument  of  the  widest  range  and 
of  the  greatest  power.  When,  therefore,  I  insist  that 
you  like  him  should  "preach  Jesus  Christ  and  Him 
crucified,"  I  do  not  mean  to  make  the  pulpit  for  you 
a  battery,  of  such  a  nature  that  the  guns  upon  it  can 
strike  only  such  vessels  as  happen  to  pass  immediately 
in  front  of  its  embrasures.  On  the  contrary,  I  turn  it  for 
you  into  a  tower,  whereon  is  mounted  a  swivel-cannon, 
which  can  sweep  the  whole  horizon  of  human  life, 
and  strike  down  all  immorality,  and  ungodliness,  and 
selfishness,  and  sin.  I  do  not  shut  you  into  a  small 
chamber  having  but  one  outlook,  and  even  that  into 
a  narrow  court ;  but  I  place  you  in  an  observatory, 
with  a  revolving  telescope  that  can  command  the 
landscape  round  and  round,  and  sweep,  besides,  the 


THE  THEME  AND  RANGE  OF  THE  PULPIT.    103 

hemisphere  of  the  stars.  I  do  not  mean  that  you 
should  keep  continually  repeating  the  words  of  ''  the 
faithful  saying"  like  a  parrot-cry,  until  every  particle 
of  meaning  has  dropped  out  of  them  ;  but  rather, 
that  you  should  make  application  of  the  great  princi- 
ples that  lie  beneath  the  Cross,  to  the  ever-varying 
circumstances  and  occurrences  of  life,  and  that  in  such 
a  way  as  at  once  to  succor  the  Christian  and  arrest 
and  convert  the  sinner.  I  do  not  mean  that  you 
should  disdain  the  aids  of  literature,  or  refuse  to  use 
such  illustrations  as  science  may  supply ;  but  rather 
that,  while  employing  all  these,  you  should  make  them 
always  subservient  to  this  central  theme,  and  ever  turn 
their  light  upon  the  Master's  face.  I  do  not  mean 
that  you  should  decline  to  venture  with  your  hearers 
for  a  voyage  over  the  ocean  of  truth  ;  but  rather  that 
while  sailing  forth,  you  should  be  careful  still  to  have 
your  first  parallel  of  longitude  passing  through  Cal- 
vary, that  so  you  may  judge  of  all  things  else  by  their 
relation  to  the  Cross,  and  that,  ever  as  you  have 
opportunity,  you  should  beseech  sinners  to  be  recon- 
ciled to  God. 

Is  there  anywhere,  gentlemen,  a  finer  field  for  use- 
fulness than  the  pulpit  is  when  thus  employed  ?  Is 
there  anywhere  a  more  powerful  instrument  for  good 
than  the  Cross  of  Christ  when  thus  applied  ?  Go 
forth  determined  to  use  them  both  to  the  full,  after 
the  pattern  of  the  great  Apostle ;  and  though  you 
may  not  have  at  any  time  such  seasons  of  excitement 
as  men  commonly  call  revivals,  your  ministry  will  be 
a  constant  revival,  for  you  will  be  always  gladdened 
by  the  occurrence  of  conversions,  while  at  the  same 


I04 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  THE   WORD. 


time  you  are  encouraged  by  beholding  your  children 
*Svalking  in  the  truth." 

He  will  never  find  the  pulpit  either  a  narrow  place 
or  a  useless  place,  who  enters  it  in  the  spirit  in  which 
the  Lord  Himself  began  His  ministry,  and  feels  that 
he,  too,  can  say,  at  least  with  some  measure  of  truth, 
"  The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  God  is  upon  me  ;  because 
the  Lord  hath  anointed  me  to  preach  good  tidings 
unto  the  meek ;  He  hath  sent  me  to  bind  up  the 
broken-hearted,  to  proclaim  liberty  to  the  captives, 
and  the  opening  of  the  prison  to  them  that  are  bound  ; 
to  proclaim  the  acceptable  year  of  the  Lord,  and  the 
day  of  vengeance  of  our  God  ;  to  comfort  all  that 
mourn ;  to  appoint  unto  them  that  mourn  in  Zion,  to 
give  unto  them  beauty  for  ashes,  the  oil  of  joy  for 
mourning,  the  garment  of  praise  for  the  spirit  of 
heaviness,  that  they  might  be  called  trees  of  right- 
eousness, the  planting  of  the  Lord,  that  He  might 
be  glorified."  "'^  Go,  gentlemen,  and  do  that  work, 
using  the  Cross  of  Christ  as  your  great  instrument, 
and  you  will  find  a  sphere  ample  enough  for  all  your 
energies,  and  success  large  enough  to  fill  your  hearts 
with  joy. 


*  Isaiah  Ixi.  1-3.  I  cannot  quote  this  passage  without  direct- 
ing attention  to  the  volume  written  in  exposition  of  it,  by  my  old 
friend  and  neighbor,  the  Rev.  Alexander  Macleod,  D.D.,  Birken- 
head, England.  His  work  on  these  verses,  entitled  "  Christus 
Consolator,"  is  a  most  valuable  treatise,  vindicating  successfully 
the  liberty  of  the  pulpit  to  deal  with  social  questions,  and  furnish- 
ing an  excellent  example  of  the  best  way  of  handling  very  deli- 
cate subjects. 


LECTURE   V. 

THE  QUALITIES  OF  EFFECTIVE  PREACHING — IN  THE 
SERMON. 


LECTURE    V. 

THE   QUALITIES  OF  EFFECTIVE  PREACHING — IN  THE 
SERMON. 

n^HAT  is  effective  preaching  which  convinces  the 
-■-  intellect,  stirs  the  heart,  and  quickens  the  con- 
science of  the  hearer,  so  that  he  is  moved  to  believe 
the  truth  which  has  been  presented  to  him,  or  to  take 
the  course  which  has  been  enforced  upon  him. 

This  result  cannot  be  produced,  in  any  case,  with- 
out the  agency  of  the  Holy  Ghost ;  yet  it  is  never  to 
be  forgotten  that,  in  bringing  it  about,  that  Divine 
person  works  by  means,  which  have,  even  in  them- 
selves, a  fitness  to  secure  the  end  in  view.  Now  of 
these  means,  so  far  as  they  are  connected  with  the 
Christian  ministry,  the  sermon  is  the  most  important ; 
and  the  preacher  ought  always  to  seek  that  his  dis- 
course shall  have  in  it  special  adaptation  to  effect  the 
result  which,  at  the  moment,  he  has  set  before  him. 
There  is  no  inconsistency  between  his  faith  in  the 
necessity  of  the  agency  of  the  Spirit,  and  his  exertion 
to  have  his  sermon  such  as  shall  be  signally  fitted  to 
impress  his  hearers ;  nay,  rather  the  more  intelligently 
be  believes  that  he  is  a  "  laborer  together  with  God," 
the  more  diligently  will  he  work  to  make  his  discourse 
as  excellent  as  possible.  The  husbandman  knows  that 
he  cannot  make  the  seed  grow ;  yet  while  he  looks  to 

(107) 


I08  THE  MINISTRY  OF   THE   WORD. 

God  for  the  increase,  he  is  himself  careful  to  treat 
each  sort  of  soil  as  its  nature  requires,  and  to  give  to 
each  kind  of  crop  the  peculiar  attention  that  its  char- 
acter demands.  And  in  like  manner,  though  the 
preacher  is  aware  that  God  alone  can  make  his  ser- 
mon effectual  in  the  spiritual  profiting  of  his  hearers, 
yet  "  because  he  is  wise,"  he  seeks  ''  to  find  out  ac- 
ceptable words"  which  shall  be  ''as  goads,  and  as 
nails  fastened  by  the  masters  of  assemblies."  * 

There  are,  indeed,  extremists  who  affirm  that  all  at- 
tention paid  by  the  preacher  to  the  preparation  of  his 
discourse,  is  just  so  much  dishonor  done  to  the  Holy 
Spirit  ;  but  such  an  opinion  is  utterly  opposed  to  the 
fundamental  principle  of  the  ministry  of  the  Gospel. 
The  peculiar  glory  of  that  service  is,  that  it  is  a  sacri- 
fice. The  preacher  lays  both  himself  and  his  sermon 
upon  the  altar,  that  his  Lord  may  use  them  for  the 
highest  and  holiest  purposes.  Now,  every  sacrifice 
should  be  the  very  noblest  we  can  offer.  Hence, 
just  because  the  minister  feels  that  he  is  consecrated 
(not  by  any  formal  ordination,  but  by  his  own  volun- 
tary dedication  and  by  the  anointing  of  the  Holy 
Ghost)  to  Christ,  he  seeks  to  make  himself  ''  thor- 
oughly furnished  "  for  his  work ;  and  because  he 
makes  his  sermon  an  offering  to  Christ,  he  labors  to 
have  it  the  best  he  can  produce.  Out  of  the  very 
love  of  his  heart  he  endeavors  to  make  his  discourse 
the  very  finest  tribute  which  he  can  lay  at  his  Mas- 
ter's feet,  for 

"  Love  still  delig-hts  to  bring  her  best, 
And  where  love  is,  her  offering  evermore  is  blest." 

*  Ecclesiastes  xii.  lo,  ir. 


Q  UALI  TIE  S  OF  EFFE  C  TI VE  PRE  A  CHING.        1 09 

When,  therefore,  he  is  acting  on  this  principle,  he  is 
not  to  be  told  that  he  is  dishonoring  the  Spirit.  It 
seems  very  pious  to  be  thus  jealous  for  the  honor  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  but  it  is  in  reality  very  impious,  and 
the  minister  who  seeks  to  glorify  God  by  systemati- 
cally neglecting  the  preparation  of  his  discourses, 
will  find  in  the  end  that  he  has  only  covered  himself 
with  disgrace.  In  the  work  of  "  winning  souls,"  as  in 
other  departments  of  human  activity,  it  is  "  the  hand 
of  the  diligent  "  that  "  maketh  rich." 

There  is,  therefore,  no  reason,  so  far  as  the  prerog- 
ative of  the  Holy  Ghost  is  concerned,  why  we  should 
refuse  to  consider  the  question,  What  are  the  quali- 
ties of  an  effective  sermon  ?  That  is  the  topic  which 
I  have  chosen  for  the  present  Lecture,  but  as  I  at- 
tempt to  treat  it,  do  not  expect  that  I  shall  enter 
upon  minute  details  concerning  such  technicalities 
as  exordium,  division,  discussion,  peroration,  and  the 
like.  These  belong  to  the  work  of  the  class  of  homi- 
letics,  and  they  have  been  already  handled  by  a  whole 
host  of  writers — by  none  more  ably  than  by  your  own 
excellent  Professor.  You  will  not  misunderstand  me, 
either,  if  I  should  not  repeat  here  what  I  have  already 
said  so  emphatically  about  the  importance  of  preach- 
ing "  Christ  and  Him  crucified."  My  present  inquiry 
concerns  not  the  matter,  but  the  medium  through 
which  that  matter  is  to  be  conveyed  ;  and  my  aim 
will  be  to  give  you  a  few  general  principles,  empha- 
sized by  experience,  which  may  guide  you  so  to  preach 
as  to  present  the  truth  in  the  most  winning  and  im- 
pressive form. 


no  THE  MINISTRY  OF  THE   WORD. 

Now,  in  analyzing  the  qualities  which  go  to  make 
a  sermon  effective,  I  find  some  in  the  discourse  itself, 
and  some  in  the  preacher,  and  though  those  which 
are  in  the  sermon  must  have  been  first  in  the  preach- 
er, yet  it  will  contribute  to  simplicity  and  tend  to 
keep  us  from  confusion,  to  adhere  to  this  arrange- 
ment. 

Taking  those  which  are  in  the  sermon  itself,  1 
name  as  the  first,  definiteness  of  aim.  Every  sermon 
should  have  a  distinct  object  in  view.  One  must 
preach,  not  because  the  Sabbath  has  come  round, 
and  he  has  to  occupy  the  time  somehow,  but  rather 
because  there  is  something  pressing  upon  his  mind 
and  heart  which  he  feels  impelled  to  proclaim.  Some 
doctrine  has  taken  hold  of  him  with  peculiar  power, 
and  while  he  is  under  the  spell  of  it,  he  seeks  to  ex- 
pound it  to  his  hearers.  Some  phase  of  experience  has 
come  under  his  observation  as  he  has  been  visiting 
from  house  to  house,  or  has  left  its  mark  upon  him- 
self as  he  has  been  passing  through  it ;  and  while  yet 
the  impression  is  distinct,  he  makes  it  the  theme  of 
public  discourse.  Some  sin  has  broken  out  with  more 
than  usual  virulence  in  his  neighborhood,  and  he  sets 
the  trumpet  to  his  mouth  that  he  may  sound  a  timely 
alarm.  Some  department  of  Christian  duty  has  been 
neglected  by  the  members  of  his  flock,  and  with  all 
fidelity  and  tenderness  he  seeks  to  show  them  its  im- 
portance, and  to  set  before  them  the  blessed  results 
which  would  flow  from  their  attention  to  it.  And  so 
as  week  after  week  revolves,  each  Lord's  day's  address 


QUALITIES  OF  EFFECTIVE  PREACHING.        m 

has  its  distinct  individuality  since  he  has  exerted 
himself  in  each  to  do  one  thing.  This,  as  it  seems 
to  me,  is  the  ideal  of  the  ministry. 

Ever,  therefore,  as  you  sit  down  to  prepare  your 
discourse,  let  your  question  be,  ''  What  is  my  purpose 
in  this  sermon  ?"  and  do  not  move  a  step  until  you 
have  shaped  out  before  your  mind  a  definite  answer 
to  that  inquiry.  This  will  save  you  from  that  vague- 
ness which  chloroforms  so  many  sermons  and  sends 
so  many  hearers  to  sleep.  vSet  up  your  goal,  and  keep 
it  always  in  sight,  so  every  step  you  take  will  bring 
you  nearer  to  its  attainment,  and  your  audience  will 
be  at  no  loss  to  see  what  you  are  driving  at.  The 
way  to  walk  in  a  straight  line  over  a  trackless  field,  is 
to  fix  the  eye,  and  keep  it  fixed,  on  some  object  that  is 
stationary  and  sufficiently  elevated,  and  then  to  move 
towards  that  ;  and  the  great  preventive  of  diffuseness 
and  digression  in  discourse  is  to  have,  high  above  all 
other  things  in  your  mind,  the  perception  of  the  pur- 
pose which  your  sermon  is  designed  to  fulfill. 

But  any  purpose  will  not  do.  You  must  seek  to 
have  an  aim  whose  importance  will  be  sufficient  to 
stimulate  your  own  mind  and  to  retain  the  attention 
of  your  hearers.  Avoid  all  diminutive  themes — such 
as  may  be  discussed  and  settled  in  a  few  sentences  ; 
for  if  you  try  to  make  a  whole  sermon  on  one  of 
these,  you  will  be  tempted  to  fill  up  the  time  with 
vapid  declamation,  and  will  continue  to  spin  away 
with  the  wheel  of  verbal  fluency  long  after  the  "  tow  '* 
of  thought  has  been  exhausted.  That  was  a  wise  ad- 
vice of  Dr.  James  W.  Alexander,  "  Preach  on  great 


112  THE  MINISTRY  OF  THE   WORD. 

subjects."  There  is  something  in  them  to  inspire 
the  preacher  and  to  subdue  and  impress  the  hearer. 
Leave  the  lesser  topics  for  minor  occasions — such  as 
the  chair  of  the  prayer-meeting  or  the  table  of  the 
lecture-room  will  supply.  But  let  your  sermons  be 
elevated  in  their  subjects,  and  they  will  be  elevating 
in  their  influence. 

Yet,  when  you  are  dealing  with  a  great  theme,  do 
not  aim  at  being  exhaustive.  Leave  something  for 
again.  Try,  rather,  to  be  clear,  simple,  instructive. 
You  are  not  writing  a  treatise  which  is  to  contain 
everything  that  can  be  said  on  every  branch  of  your 
subject  ;  you  are  going  to  address  a  company  of  fel- 
low-men, to  whom,  in  all  likelihood,  you  will  have 
many  other  opportunities  of  speaking,  so  let  your 
endeavor  be  to  give  one  distinct  aspect  of  your  theme, 
leaving  other  views  of  it  for  other  occasions.  I  be- 
lieve it  is  a  common  fault  with  young  preachers  to 
overweight  their  discourses  with  a  superabundance  of 
material.  Their  tendency  is  to  put  all  they  know  on 
any  subject  into  the  discourse  which  is  treating  of 
that  subject.  So,  in  a  very  short  time,  they  exhaust 
their  own  resources,  and  even  before  they  have  done 
that,  they  have  exhausted  the  patience  of  their  hear- 
ers. I  well  remember  after  I  had  preached  my  first 
sermon  in  a  country  church,  there  was  reported  to 
me  a  criticism  which  a  plain,  blunt  man  had  made 
upon  my  discourse,  which  had  a  world  of  meaning  in 
it  in  this  connection.  My  text  had  been  the  first 
verse  of  the  fifth  chapter  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Ro- 
mans, "  Therefore,  being  justified  by  faith,  we  have 


Q  U A  LI  TIES  OF  EFFECTIVE  PRE  A  CHING.        \  \  3 

peace  with  God  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,"  and 
I  had  dealt  with  justification,  with  faith,  and  with 
peace  with  God,  as  if  I  had  resolved  not  to  leave  any- 
thing unsaid  that  could  be  said  upon  them.  On  com- 
ing out  of  the  church,  one  of  my  hearers  being  asked 
what  he  thought  of  the  discourse,  replied,  "  These 
young  preachers  are  like  young  delvers,  they  take 
thundering  big  spadefuls !  "  That  witness  was  true, 
in  my  case,  and  I  tried  ever  afterwards  to  lighten  my 
discourses.  Next  to  the  evil  of  having  nothing  in  a 
sermon  at  all,  is  that  of  having  too  much  in  it  ;  for 
in  neither  case  does  the  hearer  carry  much  away. 

As  another  quality  of  an  effective  sermon  I  name 
precision  of  language.  In  a  passage  which  I  have 
already  quoted  it  is  said,  "  The  preacher  sought  to 
find  out  acceptable  words."  He  did  not  take  the 
first  which  came  ;  but  he  selected  those  which  best 
expressed  his  meaning,  and  were  most  suited  to  the 
people  whom  he  was  addressing.  The  relation  of 
style  to  thought  is  of  the  closest  kind  ;  and  the  aim 
of  the  preacher  should  be  to  get  the  clearest  possible 
medium  for  the  transmission  of  his  thought.  That 
is  the  best  glass  which  most  fully  admits  the  light. 
The  paintings  which  the  artist  produces  are  very  ex- 
cellent in  themselves,  but  in  a  window  they  are  out 
of  place — if,  that  is,  the  end  of  the  window  is  to  let 
in  the  light.  So,  if  the  end  of  language  is  to  trans- 
mit thought,  then  everything  in  it  that  withdraws 
attention  from  the  thought  to  itself,  or  dims  the  lus- 
tre of  the  thought,  is  a  blemish.     Hence  the  preach- 


114 


THE  MINISTRY  OF   THE    WORD. 


er's  study  should  be  to  have  every  sentence  luminous 
with  the  thought  which  it  is  designed  to  express. 

But  how  is  that  to  be  secured  ?  Only,  in  my  judg- 
ment, by  the  careful  writing  of  every  discourse.  I 
have  very  strong  convictions  upon  this  point,  and  as 
a  different  opinion  has  been  recently  advanced  by  one 
whose  views  must  be  always  received  with  deference 
and  respect,  you  will  forgive  me  if  I  seek,  with  some 
measure  of  fullness,  to  set  forth  my  reasons  for  the 
advice  which  I  have  ventured  to  offer. 

It  seems  to  me  that  the  importance  of  the  work 
we  are  engaged  in  demands  this  exactness  of  written 
preparation  at  our  hands.  We  are  to  speak  to  men 
about  the  most  momentous  matters  that  can  occupy 
their  attention,  and  a  word  thoughtlessly  uttered  may 
carry  in  it  consequences  of  which  at  the  moment  we 
little  dreamed.  Nor  is  this  an  improbable  contin- 
gency, for  the  right  regulation  of  the  tongue  is  the 
last  attainment  of  Christian  perfection.  What  says 
the  apostle  James  ?  "  If  any  man  offend  not  in  word, 
the  same  is  a  perfect  man,"  and  it  is  surely  significant 
that  this  assertion  of  his  comes  in  immediate  connec- 
tion with  the  injunction,  '^  Be  not  many  masters  ;" 
i.  e.y  teachers.*  He  would  dissuade  his  readers  from 
the  consuming  ambition  to  become  teachers,  by  set- 
ting before  them  the  difficulty  that  must  ever  be  felt 
in  regulating  the  tongue,  which  is  the  great  instru- 
ment which  a  teacher  employs.  He,  in  effect,  says 
that  the  ^Manaloq  attempts  to  perform  the  most  im- 


*  The  word  in  the  original  is  ^iddoKa'/A 


Q  CI  A  LI  TIE  S  OF  EFFECTI VE  PRE  A  CHING.         \  \  t 

portant  function,  namely,  that  of  instruction,  with 
the  most-difficult-to-be-managed  instrument,  namely, 
the  tongue.  But  this  suggestion,  which  was  meant 
to  dissuade  the  incompetent  from  pushing  themselves 
into  the  teacher's  office,  is  valuable  also  to  those 
already  in  it,  or  preparing  for  it,  as  indicating  to  them 
a  danger  to  which  they  are  peculiarly  exposed.  It 
means  for  you  and  me,  that  we  should  take  every 
possible  precaution  to  secure  that  our  public  utter- 
ances shall  be  neither  hasty,  nor  unadvised,  nor  of 
such  a  sort  as  shall  bring  reproach  on  the  Gospel 
whose  ministers  we  are. 

Now  the  surest  means  of  guarding  against  this 
danger  is  the  use  of  the  pen.  Even  those  who  advo- 
cate careful  premeditation  of  the  line  of  thought 
which  the  preacher  proposes  to  follow,  while  yet  the 
language  is  left  to  the  prompting  of  the  moment, 
insist  that  the  constant  practice  of  written  compo- 
sition is  essential  to  success.  But  what  is  a  young 
minister  to  write,  if  he  do  not  write  his  discourses? 
He  has  not,  except  in  very  rare  instances,  the  entree 
into  the  religious  papers,  much  less  into  important 
magazines  and  Reviews.  The  request  to  contribute 
to  these  publications  is  commonly  the  consequence 
of  a  success  already  achieved,  and  so  there  is  little 
prospect  that  he  will  be  able  to  find  continuous  em- 
ployment for  his  pen  in  any  such  way.  How,  then, 
is  he  to  obtain  it  ?  Every  student  knows  that  while 
the  love  of  truth  may  stimulate  him  to  investigation, 
the  incentive  of  some  sort  of  publication  is  required 
to  urge  him  to  composition.     But  what  kind  of  publi- 


Il6  THE  MINISTRY  OF    THE    WORD. 

cation  has  in  it  more  of  inspiration  for  a  preacher 
than  that  of  the  pulpit  ?  '  To  say,  therefore,  that  a 
young  minister  should  refrain  from  writing  his  ser- 
mons, and  yet  give  himself  to  other  compositions,  is 
to  bid  him  abstain  from  that  which  will  most  effectu- 
ally furnish  him  for  his  work,  while  you  commend  him 
to  other  pursuits  less  fitted  to  give  him  the  discipline 
he  needs.  If  he  do  not  write  his  discourses,  the 
result,  in  ninety-nine  cases  out  of  every  hundred,  will 
be  that  he  will  write  nothing  at  all,  and  then  his  ser- 
mons will  become  like  Gratiano's  reasons,  having  about 
a  grain  of  thought  to  the  bushel  of  words. 

Moreover,  as  the  minister  is  to  speak  on  special 
themes,  it  is  in  reference  to  these  subjects  that  he 
particularly  needs  to  cultivate  precision  of  language. 
But  how  will  the  composition  of  a  literary  essay  give 
him  definiteness  of  terminology,  say  for  a  doctrinal 
sermon,  or  even  for  a  discourse  exposing  some  preva- 
lent evil  or  enforcing  some  neglected  duty?  Facility 
in  sketching  is  very  good,  but  that  alone  will  not 
make  an  architect.  To  become  an  adept  in  that  pro- 
fession, one  must  study  mainly  the  art  of  construction. 
Similarly  the  practice  of  composition  in  other  depart- 
ments will  not  make  a  man  produce  good  sermons ; 
that  has  to  be  learned  by  practice,  and  the  thing  to 
be  practiced  is  the  making  of  sermons. 

But  there  is  another  reason  why  a  sermon  should 
be  written  out  with  care.  We  are  able  to  secure 
thereby,  that  each  portion  of  the  discourse  shall 
receive  its  due  measure  of  attention.  Even  the  most 
skillful  extemporizers  are  in  danger  of  enriching  the 


Q  U A  LI  TIES  OF  EFFECTIVE  PRE  A  CIIING.        \  i  j 

earlier  parts  of  their  sermons  at  the  expense  of  the 
later.  They  do  not  seem  to  have  got  quite  above  the 
fear  that  haunts  the  young  orator,  that  he  will  never 
find  enough  in  his  theme  to  fill  out  the  time  allotted 
for  his  address,  so  they  put  a  great  deal  into  the  intro- 
duction and  the  sections  which  immediately  follow, 
and  when  they  come  to  the  closing  portions,  where  all 
their  resources  should  be  brought  into  operation,  they 
have  no  time  left  for  the  effective  presentation  even 
of  the  thoughts  which  they  have  premeditated,  and 
are  obliged  to  hasten  over  them  so  rapidly  that  the 
hearers  lose  all  sense  of  their  importance. 

Repeatedly,  as  we  have  listened  to  such  a  preacher, 
vve  have  seemed  to  ourselves  to  be  driven  by  him  up 
a  long  and  winding  avenue  toward  a  spacious  and 
hospitable  mansion.  But  he  has  been  diverting  our 
attention  ever  and  anon  to  interesting  objects  that 
line  the  way ;  here  was  an  umbrageous  elm,  whose 
luxuriant  foliage  carpeted  the  earth  with  shade  ; 
there  was  an  opening  through  which  a  beautiful 
glimpse  of  a  delightful  lake  was  seen,  and  yonder  was 
a  view  of  the  distant  mountains  smoking  under  the 
sunshine.  At  length  we  reach  the  door  of  the  house, 
but  before  we  enter  we  have  to  survey  the  entire 
panorama  from  the  piazza,  and  even  as  we  pass 
through  the  hall  we  must  pause  a  moment  to  admire 
some  wonderful  picture  that  hangs  there ;  then,  just 
as  we  gain  a  vision  of  the  banquet  which  is  laid  out 
for  us  in  the  dining-room,  we  discover  that  we  have 
barely  time  to  reach  the  station  so  as  to  obtain  the 
train  for  our  return  journey,  and  we  have  to  leave  the 
good  things  largely  unenjoyed. 


Il8  THE  MINISTRY  OF   THE    WORD. 

In  a  sermon  of  an  hour's  length  I  have  more  than 
once  heard  an  introduction  occupying  five  and  twenty- 
minutes  ;  and  on  one  occasion  the  preacher,  not  con- 
tent with  one  introduction,  made  another  as  long  as 
the  first.  Now,  I  do  not  say  that  such  serious  offences 
against  the  rule  of  proportion  could  not  be  committed 
in  a  written  discourse,  but  I  do  affirm  that  they  would 
be  discovered,  and  opportunity  would  be  afforded  for 
their  removal  before  the  preacher  attempted  to  sub- 
mit it  to  the  attention  of  his  auditors. 

Again,  it  ought  not  to  be  overlooked,  that  those 
extemporizers  whose  success  is  most  frequently  refer- 
red to  as  a  reason  why  sermons  should  not  be  writ- 
ten, have  generally  had  something  which  corre- 
sponded to  sermon-writing  after  all.  Thus  in  refer- 
ence to  Robert  Hall,  this  testimony  has  been  borne 
by  Dr.  Leifchild,  who  was  his  friend  and  neighbor  in 
Bristol  for  some  years :  ^^  I  learned  from  him  that 
most  of  his  great  sermons  were  first  worked  out  in 
thought,  and  inwardly  elaborated  in  the  very  words 
in  which  they  were  delivered.  They  were  thus  held 
so  tenaciously  in  the  memory  that  he  could  repeat 
them  verbatim  at  the  distance  of  years.  He  ridi- 
culed the  delusion  of  those  who  supposed  that  the 
perorations  of  his  sermons  were  delivered  impromptu, 
observing  that  they  were  the  most  carefully  studied 
parts  of  the  whole  discourse."  *  Now  this  was  compo- 
sition of  the  most  difficult  kind,  and  was  resorted  to, 


*  A  Memoir  of  Rev.  Dr.  Leifchild,  by  his  son,  J.  R.  Leifchild, 
M.A.,  p.  137. 


QUALITIES  OF  EFFECTIVE  PREACHING.        i  iq 

we  may  believe,  because  the  physical  infirmity  with 
which  Hall  was  afflicted  made  it  agony  for  him  to  use 
the  pen. 

Again,  in  the  case  of  F.  W.  Robertson ;  while  it  is 
true  that  he  delivered  his  sermons  without  having 
written  them,  yet  that  is  only  half  the  truth,  for  he 
wrote  them  out  on  the  Mondays  after  they  had  been 
preached,  and  thereby  he  had  the  ''  discipline  of  the 
pen  "  as  really  as  if  he  had  written  them  on  the  Fridays 
before  they  were  spoken.  If,  therefore,  his  example  is 
to  be  good  for  anything,  it  must  be  taken  as  a  whole, 
for  there  is  little  doubt  that  as  he  looked  back  on 
what  he  had  said,  he  would  discover  faults  from  which 
he  would  carefully  abstain  in  his  subsequent  dis- 
courses. Nor  should  we  fail  to  observe  that  if  he  had 
not  written  them,  these  wonderful  sermons  would 
have  been  completely  lost  to  the  world  at  large,  and 
could  not  have  been  so  widely  useful  as  since  his 
death  they  have  become. 

Similarly,  in  conversation  with  Mr.  Spurgeon  I 
once  elicited  from  him  the  confession  that  the  cor- 
recting of  the  proof  of  his  Sunday  morning  sermon 
gave  him,  on  every  Tuesday,  the  same  sort  of  whole- 
some discipline  which  we  meaner  mortals  derive  from 
the  writing  of  our  discourses.  Only  it  gave  it  to  him 
in  a  stronger  measure,  since  faults  always  appear  more 
glaring  in  the  printed  page  than  in  the  manuscript. 
He  said  that  sometimes  after  he  had  gone  over  it 
with  care  the  proof  looked  very  black  indeed,  and 
though  on  such  occasions  he  was  apt  to  think 
that   the  reporter  must   have  been   asleep,   he  com- 


I20  THE  MINISTRY  OF   THE    WORD. 

monly  discovered  that  the  drowsiness  had  been  in 
himself,  and  he  was  thereby  stimulated  to  greater 
watchfulness  in  the  future.  But  all  such  after-writing 
or  correction  is  but  ''  a  light  in  the  stern  of  the  ship." 
The  errors  have  been  committed,  and  careful  writing 
might  have  prevented  their  commission. 

So  again,  when  I  hear  my  distinguished  friend  Dr. 
Storrs  affirm  concerning  himself,  that  he  has  no 
verbal  memory,  and  give  that  as  a  reason  why  in  his 
preparations  he  cannot  premeditate  the  words — which 
is  only  writing  without  the  pen"^^ — I  am  disposed  to 
question  the  accuracy  of  his  own  self-judgment.  I 
have  read  as  a  written  article  from  his  pen  the  very 
same  words  which,  eighteen  months  before,  I  had 
heard  from  his  lips  in  an  apparently  extemporaneous 
address,  and  I  have  heard  it  told  that  in  a  lecture 
delivered  without  notes,  he  gave,  without  either 
hesitancy  or  mistake,  such  a  number  of  dates,  that  on 
the  following  morning  a  friend  sent  him  a  box  of 
dates,  accompanied  with  a  note  to  the  effect  that  "  after 
the  expenditure  of  the  previous  evening  he  judged  he 
must  be  quite  out  of  the  article."  These  incidents, 
therefore,  lead  me  to  believe  that,  unconsciously  to 
himself,  that  eloquent  preacher  has  in  his  study  so 
fixed  his  train  of  thought  in  his  mind,  that  he  has  no 
difficulty  in  presenting  it  to  his  hearers  in  the  very 
words  in  which  he  had  before  elaborated  it.  The 
recollection  is  so  spontaneous  that    it  seems   to  be 

*  See  "  Conditions  of  Success  in  Preaching  Without  Notes," 
by  R.  S.  Storrs,  D.D.,  LL.D. 


QUALITIES  OF  EFFECTIVE  PREACHING.         121 

reconstruction.  But  whether  this  be  so  or  not,  one 
must  have  his  great  mental  excellences,  and  in 
addition,  the  drill  of  writing  first-rate  sermons  for  a 
quarter  of  a  century,  if  he  would  faithfully  follow  the 
example  which  he  has  set. 

It  is,  therefore,  with  the  strongest  conviction  that  I 
am  giving  you  the  best  possible  advice,  that  I  say  to 
you,  write  your  sermons.  This  will  give  precision  to 
your  language  more  effectually  than  any  other  pro- 
cess, while  when  you  are  in  an  emergency  and  com- 
pelled to  extemporize,  some  former  train  of  thought 
will  come  at  your  call,  clothed  in  the  words  in  which 
you  had  before  arrayed  it."^ 

But  I  pass  now  to  another  quality  of  effectiveness 
in  a  sermon  which  is  of  not  less  importance  than  those 
already  mentioned.  I  mean  clearness  in  arrangement. 
In  every  discourse  there  must  be  method  in  order  to 
movement,  and  one  portion  should  succeed  another 
in  such  a  way  as  to  carry  forward  the  hearer  gently  yet 
inexorably  to  the  conclusion.  Arguments  are  like 
soldiers,  they  must  be  massed  and  marshalled  in  such 
a  way  as  to  overcome  all  opposition.  Resting  upon 
a  broad  base,  they  must  be  made  to  bring  all  their 
force    to    bear    upon    the    main    purpose    which    the 

*  "  I  should  lay  it  down  as  a  rule  admitting  of  no  exception,  that 
a  man  will  speak  well  in  proportion  as  he  has  written  much,  and 
that  with  equal  talents  he  will  be  the  finest  extempore  speaker, 
when  no  time  for  preparing  is  allowed,  who  has  prepared  himself 
most  sedulously  when  he  had  an  opportunity  of  delivering  a  pre- 
meditated speech." — Bi'0iigha7ns  Itiaiigural  Address  as  Lord 
Rector  of  Glass^ow  Umverjztv. 


122  THE  MINISTRY   OF    THE    WORD. 

preacher  has  in  view.  Like  as  in  a  pyramid,  the  figure 
rises,  narrowing  as  it  ascends,  until  it  terminates  in  the 
apex ;  so  a  discourse  should  become,  step  by  step,  more 
elevated,  increasing  in  intensity  as  it  rises,  until  it 
kindles  into  one  burning  point,  and  that  point  should  be 
made  to  touch  the  soul  of  every  hearer.  Or  as  in  arch- 
ery, the  marksman  draws  back  the  string  on  which  he 
has  fixed  his  arrow,  in  order  that  the  full  strength  of 
the  bow  may  go  into  the  flight  of  the  weapon,  so  the 
preacher  should  be  all  the  while  gathering  energy  for 
the  truth  which  he  designs  at  last  to  send  quivering 
home  to  the  heart  of  every  hearer.  To  this  method 
of  unity  Jay  has  very  seriously  objected,  affirming  his 
preference  for  textual  division  ;  but  it  seems  to  me 
that  it  is  not  impossible  to  combine  the  two.  And 
though  it  be  true  as  he  suggests,  that  ^'  in  preaching 
it  should  be  remembered  what  diversities  of  persons 
and  cases  there  are  before  us  at  every  service,  and  how 
unlikely  these  diversities  are  to  be  reached  by  the  very 
same  thing,"  yet,  it  is  not  to  be  forgotten  that  in  every 
good  sermon  which  follows  the  plan  of  unity,  the  first 
part  of  the  discourse  gathers  the  hearers  up  and  brings 
them  together  to  the  very  point  which  is  put  before 
them  at  the  close,  so  that  each  is  made  to  feel  that  he 
has  a  personal  responsibility  in  reference  to  it.  I  have 
seen  a  shepherd  gathering  his  flock  upon  the  High- 
land hills.  He  sent  his  trusty  dogs  far  away  out 
upon  the  mountain-side,  and  they,  running  round  and 
round  in  ever-narrowing  circles,  brought  the  bleating 
multitude  together,  until  each  one  in  it  was  compelled 
to  face  the  entrance  into  the  fold.     So  in  a  sermon, 


Q  UALl  TIES  OF  EFFECTIVE  PRE  A  CIIIiVG.        1 23 

the  earlier  portions  should  be  employed  in  encircling 
the  audience,  until  at  length,  by  the  converging  force 
of  its  ever-increasing  pressure,  the  discourse  brings 
each  hearer  up  to  the  ''strait  gate,"  and  compels  him 
to  face  the  question,  ''  Shall  I  enter  in?" 

1  he  principles  on  which  such  an  arrangement  is  to 
be  made  are  set  forth  with  sufficient  fullness  in  the 
books  on  homiletics.  Only  let  it  never  be  forgotten 
that  arrangement  is  essential  to  effect.  It  contributes 
to  perspicuity.  It  helps  the  memory  of  the  hearer  to 
recall  the  various  stages  of  your  argument.  It  satis- 
fies his  judgment  and  carries  him  on  without  either 
effort  or  fatigue  to  a  conclusion,  which  he  feels  to  be 
a  result,  and  not  simply  a  cessation  of  speaking  on 
your  part. 

When  George  Stephenson,  the  famous  engineer, 
was  beaten  in  argument  by  Buckland,  and  a  few  days 
afterwards  Sir  William  Follett  instructed  by  him, 
thoroughly  vanquished  his  antagonist,  he  is  reported 
to  have  said,  that  ''  of  all  the  powers  above  and  under 
the  earth,  there  seems  to  be  no  power  so  great  as  the 
gift  of  the  gab."*  But  I  suspect  that  the  burly  engi- 
neer had  mistaken  the  marshalling  of  arguments  for  the 
command  of  words.  The  great  lawyer  knew  how  to 
arrange  his  materials,  and  in  that,  rather  than  in  his 
readiness  of  utterance,  was  the  secret  of  his  success. 
The  nine  digits  may  be  so  placed  as  to  mean  less  than 
a  unit,  and,  again,  they  may  be  put  into  such  order  as 


*  "  The  Life  of  George   Stephenson  and  of  his  son,  Robert 
Stephenson,"  by  Samuel  Smiles,  p.  467. 


124  '^^^^  MINISTRY  OF  THE   WORD. 

shall  mean  a  great  deal.  So  it  is  with  words  and  ar- 
guments, and  he  is  the  most  effective  sermonizer  who 
makes  every  phrase,  and  illustration,  and  proof  tell 
with  all  possible  force. 

Thus  far,  all  are  agreed,  but  there  is  a  difference  of 
opinion  among  authorities  on  the  question  whether 
this  arrangement  should  be  set  before  the  hearers  by 
the  distinct  announcement  of  the  separate  steps.  On 
the  one  hand  some  have  affirmed  that  ''  in  many 
cases  the  divisions  that  are  so  formally  announced  are 
little  better  than  a  disguise  of  the  heaviness  of  the 
discourse  ;"^  and  on  the  other  it  is  alleged  that  "  to 
the  mass  of  hearers,  concealed  method  is  much  the 
same  as  none."f  It  must  be  admitted,  too,  that  the 
practice  of  formally  giving  out  firstly,  secondly,  etc., 
has  become  rather  unfashionable.  Still  it  has  many 
advantages  to  recommend  it,  but  though  it  is  my 
own  general  custom,  my  advice  would  be  that  you 
should  not  bind  yourselves  by  any  inexorable  rule  on 
such  a  matter.  What  is  most  of  all  to  be  avoided  in 
the  ministrations  of  the  pulpit,  is  leaden  uniformity. 
The  sermon  should  never  be  stereotyped  either  in 
matter  or  in  form.  The  preacher  must  vary  his  methods 
with  judicious  frequency  ;  and  while  he  has  always  the 
virtue  of  arrangement,  he  may  sometimes  allow  it  to 
exercise  its  force  so  irresistibly,  that  it  will  not  need 
to  be  fore-heralded  by  announcement ;  and  sometimes 
he  may  give  out  his  heads  without  any  danger  of  be- 


*  Blaikie's  ''  For  the  Work  of  the  Ministry,"  p.  184. 
t  Jay's  "  Autobiography,"  p.  138. 


QUALITIES  OF  EFFECTIVE  PREACHIXG.        125 

ing  dull.  It  is  not  the  announcing  of  the  heads  that 
makes  a  discourse  heavy,  but  rather  the  fact  that  after 
they  are  announced,  they  are  found  to  have  no 
brains ! 

No  man  can  be  a  sculptor  without  a  competent 
knowledge  of  anatomy ;  but  there  is  a  marvelous  differ- 
ence between  a  skeleton  and  a  statue.  No  preacher 
can  succeed  who  has  not  in  his  discourse  some  princi- 
ple of  arrangement,  but  a  syllogism  is  not  a  sermon. 
If  the  order  is  all  in  all,  the  discourse  will  be  a  syllabus  ; 
but  if  there  be  no  order  at  all,  it  will  be  an  aimless 
harangue ;  and  in  either  case,  it  will  be  a  failure. 
The  guerilla  soldier  may  now  and  then  do  a  dashing 
thing,  which  harasses  the  enemy,  and  helps  to  secure 
success ;  but  in  a  war  the  main  reliance  must  be 
placed  on  the  regular  army,  and  for  its  operations  or- 
der is  essential.  So,  now  and  then  an  impulsive  and 
energetic  man  may  carry  all  before  him  by  the  force 
of  mere  explosiveness  ;  but  for  constant  effectiveness, 
there  is  nothing  like  method — only,  the  method  must 
ever  be  your  servant,  and  never  your  master. 

I  only  add,  in  this  connection,  that  a  sermon,  to  be 
effective,  must  not  be  inordinately  long.  When 
weariness  begins  to  be  felt  by  the  hearer,  edification 
ends,  and  sometimes  the  latter  portion  of  a  discourse 
only  effaces  the  impression  which  the  earlier  has 
made.  No  matter  how  many  other  excellences  a 
preacher  may  have,  they  will  all  be  neutralized  \i  he 
habitually  err  in  this  respect.  Even  such  eloquence  as 
that  of  Edward  Irving  could  not  hold  an  audience 
Sabbath  after  Sabbath  for  the  two  hours  and  a  half 


126  THE  MINISTRY  OF    THE    WORD. 

which  he  was  resolved  "  he  would  have  the  privilege 
of;"  and  there  is  such  a  thing  yet  in  the  pulpit  as 
flailing  away  at  over-threshed  straw,  until  the  ears  of 
the  hearers,  deafened  by  the  din,  seek  refuge  in  the 
unconsciousness  of  sleep. 

But  while  we  condemn  inordinate  length  as  fatal, 
it  does  not  therefore  follow^  that  brevity  is  in  and  of 
itself  an  excellence.  "  How  long  did  I  preach  ?" 
said  a  young  man  to  the  venerable  pastor  whose  pul- 
pit he  had  been  occupying  for  the  morning.  "  Just 
twelve  minutes,"  was  the  response.  "  I  am  glad  of 
that,"  replied  the  elated  freshman,  "  for  I  never  like 
to  be  tedious."  "  O  !  but  you  were  tedious,"  said  the 
old  man,  with  a  quiet  irony,  which  extinguished  him. 
It  is  possible  for  one  man  to  be  even  more  dreary  in 
ten  minutes,  than  another  would  be  in  an  hour 
and  a  half;  and  in  these  days  when  the  demand  is 
that  discourses  shall  be  measured  off  by  the  hour- 
glass, as  the  merchant  disposes  of  dry-goods  by  the 
yard,  and  when  it  is  almost  an  unpardonable  sin  if  a 
preacher  shall  require  the  attention  of  his  audience 
for  more  than  thirty  minutes,  we  need  to  give  em- 
phasis to  the  truth  that  the  length  of  an  address, 
whether  in  the  pulpit  or  elsewhere,  ought  to  be  de- 
termined by  the  nature  of  the  subject  to  which  it  is  de- 
voted. If  that  can  be  clearly  opened  up  and  faithful- 
ly enforced  in  twenty  minutes,  then  there  is  no  need 
to  take  more  ;  if,  however,  that  cannot  be  done  in  less 
than  an  hour,  then,  even  such  an  amount  of  time 
should  be  cheerfully  conceded  to  it.  The  preacher 
should  stop  when  he  has  reached  a  conclusion  ;  that 
is,  when  he  has  brought  his  arguments  and  illustra- 


QUALITIES  OF  EFFECTIVE  PREACHING.        127 

tions  to  such  a  focus  that  the  truth  he  means  to  es- 
tabUsh  is  burned  in  on  the  souls  of  those  whom  he  ad- 
dresses. If  he  go  on  after  that,  his  continuance  is  an 
impertinence  ;  but  if  he  end  before  that,  his  sermon 
is  a  fragment,  and  will  lead  to  no  result. 

In  this  view  of  the  case,  few  things  are  of  sadder 
omen  for  the  churches  than  the  unreasoning  clamoi 
for  brevity  in  sermons  which  is  so  universal  among 
the  people ;  for  if  the  pulpit  is  to  be  the  place  of  in- 
struction, he  who  speaks  from  it  must  have  a  certain 
latitude  given  him,  in  the  matter  of  time,  in  order 
that  he  may  be  faithful  to  the  trust  which  has  been 
committed  to  him.  The  teacher  of  chemistry,  or  of 
ethics,  or  of  political  economy,  or  of  social  economics, 
is  allowed  ample  scope  when  he  comes  to  the  plat- 
form ;  and  as  the  minister  is  also  the  teacher  of  the 
doctrines  of  the  Word  of  God,  the  same  privilege 
ought  to  be  accorded  to  him.  Let  any  one  attempt 
to  unfold  the  Scriptural  truth  about  faith,  or  repent- 
ance, or  the  atonement,  or  justification,  or  regeneration, 
or  eternal  judgment,  or  even  any  one  aspect  of  these 
subjects  in  fifteen  minutes,  and  he  will  see  how  utter- 
ly hopeless  his  undertaking  is.  So  if  we  are  shut  up 
to  a  certain  statutory  allowance  of  so  many  minutes, 
the  results  will  be  that  doctrinal  instruction  and  sys- 
tematic exposition  of  the  sacred  Scriptures  will  be 
banished  from  the  sanctuary,  and  we  shall  train  a 
generation  of  spiritual  infants,  to  whom  it  may  be  said 
that  ''  when  for  the  time  they  ought  to  be  teachers, 
they  need  that  one  should  teach  them  again  what  be 
the  first  principles  of  the  oracles  of  God."'^ 

*  Hebrews  v.  12. 


128  THE  MINISTRY  OF   THE    WORD. 

Men  may  make  themselves  merry,  indeed,  over 
the  long  sermons  of  our  Puritan  forefathers,  with  their 
ninthlies  of  the  thirteenth  head,  but  we  should  not 
forget  that  those  who  relished  the  discourses  of  Howe, 
and  Owen,  and  Baxter,  were  the  strong  heroes  who 
won  the  liberties  of  England,  and  the  near  kinsmen 
of  the  noble  pilgrims  who  laid  the  foundations  of  this 
republic.  Depend  upon  it,  if  ever  the  pulpit  shall 
cease  to  be  a  vehicle  of  instruction,  and  sink  into  a 
place  for  the  public  reading  of  pretty  little  essays,  or 
the  utterance  of  fifteen  minutes  of  rose-water  senti- 
mentalism,  our  people  will  dwindle  into  spiritual 
dwarfs,  and  the  manhood  will  disappear  from  their 
piety. 

Of  course,  there  is  a  proper  medium  to  be  observed 
in  this  as  in  other  matters,  and  we  must  never  forget 
that  while  brevity  is  not  in  itself  considered  a  mark 
of  excellence,  inordinate  length  will  mar  the  force 
even  of  the  noblest  production.  We  must  teach  men 
"  as  they  are  able  to  bear  it,"  and  if  we  are  dealing 
with  great  subjects  in  a  way  to  interest  and  instruct 
the  hearers,  a  little  common  sense  will  be  of  more  use 
to  us  than  any  rigid  rule  in  determining  the  length  of 
our  discourse.  He  who  is  saying  nothing,  cannot  have 
done  too  soon.  He  who  is  saying  something,  will  al- 
ways say  that  best  in  the  fewest  words.  When  the 
nail  is  driven  home,  all  after-hammering  is  superfluous  ; 
but  if  we  stop  before  we  have  driven  it  home,  we  might 
as  well  never  have  begun  to  drive  it. 


LECTURE   VI. 

THE   QUALITIES   OF  AN   EFFECTIVE  SERMON — IN  THE 
PREACHER. 


LECTURE    VI. 

THE   QUALITIES   OF  AN   EFFECTIVE   SERMON — 
IN   THE   PREACHER. 

"TN  Speaking  of  the  qualities  of  an  effective  sermon, 
-*-  so  far  as  these  are  in  the  preacher,  I  shall  not 
refer  to  literary  culture  or  elocutionary  skill,  though 
these  in  their  own  places  have  an  importance 
not  to  be  overlooked ;  but  I  shall  confine  my  atten- 
tion to  those  spiritual  elements  of  power  which  have 
their  source  in  the  convictions  and  character  of  the 
minister  himself. 

And  foremost  among  these  I  name  earnestness. 
But  wherein  does  earnestness  consist  ?  The  ques- 
tion is  by  no  means  unnecessary,  for  the  term  has 
become  one  of  the  "  cant  "  words  of  the  time,  and  in 
the  frequency  of  its  use  we  are  apt  to  lose  sight  of 
its  true  significance. 

We  must  not  confound  it  with  mere  vehemence  of 
manner.  Rant  is  not  intensity,  neither  is  noise  ear- 
nestness. Too  often  the  "  sound  and  fury "  signify 
"  nothing ;"  and  sometimes  as  I  have  been  compelled 
to  listen  to  preachers  of  the  noisy  school,  I  have 
thought  that  they  had  taken  their  cue  from  Quince 
in  his  description  of  the  lion's  part,  when  he  says, 
"  You  may  do  it  extempore,  for  it  is  nothing  but 
roaring.""^*     That  is,  and  always  must  be,  ridiculous, 


*  Midsummer-Night's  Dream,  Act  I.,  Scene  II. 

(131) 


132 


THE   MINISTRY  OF    THE    WORD. 


and  the  antics  which  such  orators  cut  remind  me  of 
the  position  once  occupied  by  a  dignified  professor 
of  divinity,  when,  being  in  a  boat  with  a  party,  and 
thinking  he  could  row  Avith  ease,  he  took  an  oar, 
and  at  the  second  or  third  stroke  "  caught  a  crab," 
so  that  he  lay  sprawling,  hands  and  heels  uppermost, 
in  a  most  ludicrous  plight,  and  was  thus  addressed 
by  his  venerable  mother,  "  Less  pith,  and  more  to 
the  purpose,  my  man  !"  Let  the  "  pith  "  be  all  ''  to 
the  purpose,"  gentlemen,  for  it  is  in  the  purpose  first 
and  always  that  the  earnestness  must  lie.  It  is  not 
a  manner  which  can  be  put  on  from  without,  but  an 
influence,  say,  rather,  an  effluence,  which  must  ema- 
nate from  within.  It  cannot  be  acquired  by  any  prac- 
tice, or  successfully  imitated  from  any  model.  Nei- 
ther can  it  be  simulated  by  any  process.  It  is  part 
of  the  man. 

It  springs  out  of  an  unwavering  conviction  of  the 
truth  of  that  which  we  are  at  the  moment  preaching, 
and  of  the  fact  that  just  that  truth  needs  to  be  spoken 
to  our  hearers.  If  we  have  not  made  up  our  minds 
upon  a  subject,  we  cannot  kindle  into  enthusiasm 
over  its  treatment  ;  and  he  who  has  not  yet  brought 
the  ends  of  his  thoiights  together  on  any  matter, 
should  keep  that  matter  out  of  the  pulpit  until  he 
has.  It  is  the  irrepressible  in  a  man  that  makes  him 
earnest.  If  he  can  keep  anything  in,  then  let  him 
keep  it,  for  such  a  thing,  generally  speaking,  is  not 
worth  letting  out,  and  his  utterance  of  it  will  have  no 
force.  But  when  it  comes  to  such  a  point  with  him  that 
he  feels  like  the  old  prophet  who  said,  *'  His  word  was 


THE  (QUALITIES  OF  AN  EFFECTIVE  SERMON.   133 

in  mine  heart  as  a  burning  fire  shut  up  in  my  bones, 
and  I  was  weary  with  forbearing,  and  I  could  not 
stay,"*  then  he  will  speak  in  such  a  way  as  to  thrill 
and  overawe  his  hearers.  When,  like  Peter  before 
the  council,  he  is  as  if  under  some  inner  impulsion, 
and  says,  ''  I  cannot  but  speak,"'f'  or  when,  like  Paul, 
he  cries,  ''  Necessity  is  laid  upon  me,  yea,  woe  is  unto 
me  if  I  preach  not,"  then  his  earnestness  will  come  as 
a  thing  of  course,  and  there  will  be  as  much  difference 
between  his  words  and  those  of  the  mere  rhetorician, 
as  there  is  between  the  mimic  thunder  of  the  theatre 
and  the  reverberations  of  the  cloud-artillery  as  they 
are  redoubled  by  the  Alpine  echoes. 

In  the  lack  of  this,  as  it  seems  to  me,  we  have  the 
secret  of  the  easy  nonchalance,  not  to  say  indiffer- 
ence, which  many  hearers  complain  of  in  the  minis- 
trations of  the  modern  pulpit.  The  preacher  fills  up 
the  time  with  talk,  because  he  must  say  something. 
He  does  not  go  into  the  sacred  desk  under  the  ab- 
sorbing impulse  of  the  feeling  that  he  has  something 
which  he  must  say.  So  he  is  aimless  and  uninterest- 
ing, and  fails  to  impress  others  because  he  is  unim- 
pressed himself.  It  cannot  be  too  constantly  remem- 
bered by  you,  that  your '  usefulness  to  others  must 
depend,  next  to  the  influence  of  God's  Spirit,  upon 
the  intensity  of  your  own  convictions.  There  is 
nothing  so  contagious  as  conviction.  The  percep- 
tion that  you  are  well  assured  of  the  truth  of  that 
which  you  affirm,  will  help  your  hearers  into  the  same 


*  Jeremiah  xx.  9.  t  Acts  iv.  20. 


134  THE  MINISTRY  OF  THE   WORD. 

certainty ;  and  often  in  the  times  when  their  faith  is 
sorely  tried  and  is  almost  ready  to  fail,  their  observa- 
tion of  your  confidence  will  lift  them  into  trust. 
Their  reliance  on  you  will  lead  them  to  believe  in 
what  you  say.  But  if  you  devote  your  sermons  to 
the  enumeration  and  illustration  of  the  things  which 
you  do  not  believe  ;  if  you  are  careful  only  to  discuss  - 
the  points  on  which  you  are  either  undecided  or  out 
of  harmony  with  other  and  more  ordinary  men,  you 
will  produce  anything  but  conviction,  and  will  win 
from  the  more  intelligent  of  your  hearers  the  criti- 
cism pronounced  by  Johnson  on  Dr.  Priestley, "  He 
unsettles  everything  and  settles  nothing." 

If,  therefore,  you  have  no  positive  convictions,  keep 
out  of  the  pulpit  until  you  get  them  ;  and  when  you 
get  them,  they  will  make  for  themselves  a  manly  and 
earnest  utterance.  Do  not,  I  beseech  you,  enter  upon 
a  pastorate  professing,  in  a  fashion,  to  hold  certain 
truths  which  yet  are  not  such  to  you,  as  that  you  feel 
you  must  preach  them  at  all  hazards.  Such  a  posi- 
tion will  be  fatal  to  usefulness.  Shape  to  yourselves 
clear  and  definite  views  regarding  "  the  truth  as  it  is 
in  Jesus,"  and  let  the  measure  of  your  love  to  Him 
be  that  also  of  the  firmness  with  which  you  hold  them  ; 
so  shall  the  fervor  of  your  affection  for  your  Lord 
inspire  and  energize  your  utterances.  "  We,  having 
the  same  spirit  of  faith  according  as  it  is  written,  I 
believed,  and,  therefore,  have  I  spoken,  we  also  be- 
lieve and  therefore  speak."*     Mark  the  force  of  that 


*  2  Cor.  iv.  13. 


THE  QUALITIES  OF  AN  EFFECTIVE  SERMON.   135 

"  therefore  ;"  it  is  the  hinge  on  which  all  true  earnest- 
ness turns  ;  without  that  your  words  will  be  little 
better  than  "  drowsy  tinklings ; "  with  that  they 
will  be  full  of  force,  and  you  will  be  like  him  of  whom 
the  poef^  speaks,  as  on  a  "  throne  mounted  in  heav- 
en," and  shooting  "  into  the  dark,  arrows  of  lighten- 
ing." 

But  another  element  of  earnestness  is  a  vivid  real- 
ization of  the  position  of  our  hearers.  Let  a  man 
have  the  firm  belief  that  he  is  dealing  with  immortal 
souls  ;  that  unless  these  souls  embrace  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  and  live  in  obedience  to  His  laws,  they  must 
perish  everlastingly  ;  and  that  he  is  set  to  persuade 
them  to  choose  that  ''  good  part  which  cannot  be 
taken  away  "  from  them,  and  he  cannot  help  being 
earnest  in  his  appeals  to  them. 

When  one  reads  in  the  biography  of  that  great  and 
good  man  after  whom  this  lectureship  is  named,  that 
his  six  sermons  on  "  Intemperance  "  were  preached 
in  order  that  he  might  save  some  of  the  members  of 
his  congregation  whom  he  most  tenderly  loved,  from 
the  horrible  hell  of  the  drunkard,  we  have  at  once 
the  explanation  of  their  scorching  earnestness  and  of 
their  irresistible  power. 

In  the  same  way  we  account  for  the  fiery  logic  of 
the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians.  The  apostle  saw  that 
the  truth  of  the  Gospel  was  endangered,  and  that  those 
beloved  ones  over  whose  conversion  he  had  rejoiced 
were  in  the  greatest  peril,  and  so  he  sat  down,  and  with 


*  Tennyson.     Sonnet  to  J.  M.  K. 


136  THE  MINISTRY  OF   THE    WORD. 

his  own  hand  he  wrote  to  them,  in  large  letters,  that 
epistle  wherein  "  the  arrows  of  his  thoughts  "  are 
"  headed  and  winged  with  flame."  Here  is  the  ex- 
planation of  its  passionate  energy,  its  scathing  invec- 
tive, its  rapid  movement,  its  parental  tenderness,  and 
its  condensed  power.  He  saw  them  in  danger,  and 
he  was  in  haste  to  rescue  them.  His  one  great  aim 
was  to  open  their  eyes  to  their  real  position,  and  to 
bring  them  back  to  the  security  that  is  in  Christ.  I 
do  not  say  that  he  was  not  in  earnest  in  all  his  epistles, 
but  we  cannot  read  that  letter  without  feeling  that 
he  was  peculiarly  moved  when  he  penned  it,  and 
as  a  consequence  it  peculiarly  affects  us. 

Now,  from  the  difference  between  that  and  his 
other  writings,  we  may  learn  much  regarding  the 
earnestness  of  which  we  are  in  search.  Especially 
we  discover  that  the  perception  of  the  circumstances 
of  those  to  whom  we  speak,  will  give  us  such  con- 
cern for  their  welfare  that  we  shall  lose  sight  of  all 
things  else  in  the  effort  to  secure  their  salvation. 
There  is  no  mistaking  the  earnestness  of  him  who 
runs  from  the  burning  dwelling  to  cry  "  Fire  !  fire  !" 
He  sees  the  evil ;  he  knows  that  if  means  be  not  taken 
promptly  to  extinguish  the  flames  the  house  must  be 
destroyed  ;  and  so  he  does  not  take  it  leisurely,  but 
rushes  on  along  the  nearest  way  to  the  engine-house. 
And  it  is  the  same  in  the  pulpit.  When  the  salva- 
tion of  souls  or  the  benefit  of  men  in  some  special 
direction  is  the  uppermost  object  in  the  preacher's 
ambition,  earnestness  will  come  unsought ;  but  without 
that  it  can  never  be  attained. 


THE  QUALITIES  OF  AN  EFFECTIVE  SERMON.   137 

A  Summer  or  two  ago,  a  clergyman  of  the  Church 
of  England,  who  was  taking  a  holiday  in  Switzerland, 
came,  in  one  of  the  mountain  passes  of  that  land,  to 
a  place  of  considerable  danger,  and  as  he  was  thread- 
ing his  way  with  care,  he  heard  a  piercing  shriek, 
which,  at  length,  he  found  proceeded  from  a  lady, 
who  was  down  on  the  side  of  the  precipice  in  a  posi- 
tion of  awful  peril,  and  who  was  crying  for  assistance. 
Taking  a  hasty  survey  of  the  situation,  he  went  by 
what  seemed  to  him  the  best  way  to  her  relief,  and 
after  making  great  efforts,  he  succeeded  in  bringing 
her  with  him  to  a  place  of  safety.  The  next  day  he 
went  with  a  friend  to  show  him  the  spot,  but  though 
he  tried  very  hard,  he  found  that  he  could  not  get 
anywhere  near  it.  Would  you  know  the  reason  of 
this  difference?  In  the  former  instance  there  was  a 
life  to  be  saved ;  in  the  latter  there  was  only  a  display 
to  be  made.  Let  not  the  lesson  be  lost  upon  us.  We 
shall  always  do  most,  my  young  brethren,  when  we 
are  directly  seeking  to  save  souls ;  but  when  we  are 
working  only  for  display,  we  shall  inevitably  fail.  If 
you  keep  your  eye  on  the  end  to  be  gained,  you  will 
be  sure  to  be  earnest ;  but  when  you  attempt  to  show 
how  you  have  done  it,  or  how  you  can  do  it,  the 
earnestness  will  evaporate. 

Think,  then,  ever  as  you  enter  the  pulpit  on  the  po- 
sition and  necessities  of  your  hearers.  See  in  them 
a  company  of  fellow  immortals,  each  of  whom  is 
needing  your  help  in  the  great  struggle  of  life,  and  in 
your  eagerness  to  assist  them,  all  thoughts  of  self  will 
die  out  of  your  soul.     Your  hearts  will  be  filled  with 


138  THE  MINISTRY  OF  THE   WORD. 

yearning  affection  for  them,  and  that  itself  will  be  a 
power  over  them,  for  as  one*  has  said  : 

"  If  mountains  can  be  mov^ed  by  faith, 
Is  there  less  power  in  love  ?" 

All  your  words  will  be  made  to  converge  toward 
the  great  result  on  which  your  heart  is  fixed  ;  and 
your  ministry,  as  a  whole,  will  grow  in  interest  under 
your  eyes,  as  you  watch  week  by  week  for  the  effects 
of  your  labors. 

Here,  then,  are  the  twin  sources  of  that  earnestness 
of  which  so  much  is  said,  namely,  intellectual  convic- 
tion of  the  truth  of  those  things  which  we  proclaim ; 
and  loving  realization  of  the  fact  that  our  hearers  need 
to  have  these  things  said  to  them  in  order  to  be  saved 
from  the  evils  of  time  and  the  perdition  of  eternity. 
Give  us  these  in  all  the  occupants  of  all  our  pulpits, 
and  the  world  will  be  constrained  to  listen  to  them. 
There  is  no  royal  rpad  to  earnestness ;  neither  can  it 
be  successfully  counterfeited  by  any  histrionic  art. 
We  can  gain  it  only  through  personal  conviction  and 
pervasive  love  ;  but,  when  we  do  gain  it,  we  do  not  so 
much  possess  it  as  it  possesses  us,  and  carries  us  out 
of  ourselves  to  achievements  which  are  as  astonishing 
to  ourselves  as  they  are  irresistible  to  those  whom  we 
address. 

A  second  quality  of  effectiveness  in  the  preacher  is 
courage.     It  is  said  of  the  apostles  that  "  they  spake 


*  Frederick  William  Faber. 


THE  QUALITIES  OF  AN  EFFECTIVE  SERMON.    139 

the  Word  of  God  with  boldness ;""  and  all  who  since 
their  days  have  been  signally  successful  in  the  winning 
of  souls  have  been  distinguished  by  the  same  charac- 
teristic. They  have  ''  not  shunned  to  declare  all  the 
counsel  of  God."f  They  have  used  "  great  plainness 
of  speech,"  calling  things  by  their  right  names,  and 
exposing,  when  need  was,  the  evils  which  existed  in 
the  Church,  in  the  home,  and  in  the  community. 
John  of  the  golden  mouth  would  not  have  been  so 
blessed  to  the  citizens  of  Antioch  and  Constantinople, 
if  he  had  not  been  so  fearless  in  his  denunciations  of 
corruptions,  no  matter  in  what  rank  of  society  they 
appeared  ;  and  if  Luther  had  not  possessed  "  the  spirit 
and  power  of  Elijah,"  the  Reformation  from  popery 
had  not  resulted  from  his  labors. 

It  may  seem  strange  that  I  should  connect  such 
great  names  as  these  with  the  enforcement  of  the  cul- 
tivation of  courage  upon  you,  but  even  if  your  lot 
should  be  cast  in  the  humblest  village,  let  me  assure 
you  from  my  own  experience,  that  it  will  require  as 
much  heroism  to  breast  the  tide  of  antagonism  there, 
as  it  does  in  the  largest  city.  "  The  fear  of  man 
bringeth  a  snare ;"  therefore,  when  you  enter  the 
pulpit,  let  all  considerations  of  personal  comfort  or 
interest  sink  out  of  sight,  while  you  seek  to  enforce 
upon  your  hearers  that  which  is  ''  right  in  the  sight 
of  God."  If  you  are  determined  only  to  set  forth 
the  truth  of  God,  you  may  rely  upon  it  that  God 
will  take  care  of  you. 


*  Acts  iv.  31.  +  Acts  XX.  27. 


I^o  THE  MINISTRY  OF  THE   WORD. 

I  say  not,  indeed,  that  you  are  at  liberty  to  in- 
dulge in  personal  invective  in  your  discourses.  If 
you  have  anything  against  any  individual  among 
your  flock,  ^'  go  and  tell  him  his  fault  between  thee 
and  him  alone  ;"  but  be  not  guilty  of  the  cowardice 
of  attacking  him  in  the  house  of  God,  when  he  has 
no  opportunity  of  reply.  Impertinence  is  not  faith- 
fulness, and  rudeness  is  not  Christian  courage.  If 
you  mean  to  do  good  to  a  man,  the  very  worst  course 
you  can  take  is  to  begin  by  insulting  him.  Be  as 
fearless  as  you  please  in  the  denunciation  of  sins,  but 
take  care  that  you  do  not  so  describe  an  individual 
sinner  as  to  enable  all  your  hearers  to  identify  him. 
Men  come  to  the  house  of  God  to  be  preached  to,  not 
to  be  preached  at,  and  your  aim  should  be  to  secure 
that  each  auditor  shall  make  application  to  himself  of 
the  truth  which  you  are  enforcing.  Generally  speak- 
ing, the  hearers  of  our  discourses  are  inclined  of  them- 
selves to  be  amazingly  benevolent  with  our  words, 
and  will,  without  any  help  of  ours,  give  them  all  away 
among  their  neighbors.  It  is  not  for  us,  therefore,  to 
pander  to  that  tendency  by  striking  plainly  at  certain 
individuals.  Our  duty  rather  is  to  concentrate  the 
thoughts  of  each  upon  himself,  so  that  the  one  arrow 
which  we  send  forth,  may,  by  the  power  of  the  divine 
Spirit,  be  multiplied  to  the  piercing  of  a  thousand 
hearts. 

But  while  we  avoid  all  invidious  personalities,  we 
must  be  careful  not  to  keep  back  any  part  of  the 
truth  from  the  fear  of  offending  any  prominent  indi- 
vidual, or  provoking  "  Demetrius  and  the  craftsmen." 


THE  QUA Lf  TIES  OF  AN  EFFECTIVE  SERMON.    141 

We  must  preach  the  preaching  that  God  bids  us,  ''  di- 
minishing not  a  word  ;""'^  and  if  men  will  take  offence, 
we  must  see  to  it,  that  the  cause  of  their  indignation 
shall  be  in  the  truth  itself  and  not  in  our  manner  of 
proclaiming  it. 

Now  there  is  only  one  way  of  securing  this,  and  that 
is  by  cultivating  faith  in  the  unseen  presence  of  Christ 
with  us.  We  must  preach  as  Moses  enduredjf  ''as 
seeing  Him  who  is  invisible."  That  will  both  lift  us 
above  the  fear  of  men  and  keep  us  from  saying  any- 
thing which  would  be  inconsistent  with  his  precepts  and 
example.  We  complicate  matters  so  soon  as  we  be- 
gin to  ask,  What  will  this  man  think  ?  or,  How  will  that 
one  feel  ?  or,  Will  not  this  seriously  affect  my  future 
comfort  ?  or  the  church's  financial  condition  ?  In  each 
of  these  directions  humiliation  and  failure  lie.  Our 
safety  is  in  the  consciousness  of  the  presence  of  Christ. 
There  will  be  no  difficulty  about  what  we  ought  to 
say,  or  how  we  ought  to  say  it,  so  long  as  we  think 
of  pleasing  Him,  but  the  moment  any  regard  to  self- 
interest  intrudes,  embarrassment  begins. 

Moreover,  if  we  yield  to  these  selfish  temptations, 
we  are  sure  in  the  end  to  miss  the  comfort  which  we 
have  been  seeking.  ''  He  that  loveth  his  life  "  thus, 
"will  lose  it,"f  for  the  timid  trimmer  who  is  always 
trying  to  keep  from  offence,  becomes  at  length  an  ob- 
ject of  contempt ;  while  he  Avho  faithfully  reproves, 
rebukes,  and  exhorts  with  all  long-suffering  and  doc- 
trine, becomes  a  power  in  the  community,  and  draws 


*  Jeremiah  xxvi.  2.         +  Hebrews  xi.  27.  \  John  xii.  25. 


142 


THE   MINISTRY  OF   THE    WORD. 


to  himself  the  confidence  and  affection  of  his  people. 
The  sycophant  is  despised  even  by  those  on  whom  he 
fawns,  but  he  who  speaks  to  men  in  the  assurance 
that  God  is  with  him,  will  secure  both  their  attention 
and  respect,  even  when  he  is  telling  them  unpalatable 
truths.  John  the  Baptist  was  popular  just  because 
he  was  pungent ;  and  the  most  attractive  preachers  of 
our  own  days  are  those  who  are  most  courageous  in 
their  antagonism  to  existing  evils. 

But  even  if  that  were  not  the  case,  it  would  still  be 
our  duty  to  keep  back  from  our  hearers  nothing  that 
will  be  profitable  unto  them ;  to  seek  their  good, 
rather  than  their  good  opinion  ;  and  to  set  clearly  be- 
fore them  the  solemn  responsibilities  of  life.  This  is 
demanded  of  us  alike  by  loyalty  to  God,  a  regard  for 
the  welfare  of  those  who  wait  upon  our  ministry,  and 
a  consideration  of  the  account  which  we  ourselves 
must  give.  To  each  of  us  God  says  as  He  did  to  Eze- 
kiel,  ''  O,  son  of  man,  I  have  set  thee  a  watchman 
unto  the  house  of  thy  people ;  therefore,  thou  shalt 
hear  the  word  at  my  mouth,  and  warn  them  from  me. 
When  I  say  unto  the  wicked,  O,  wicked  man,  thou 
shalt  surely  die ;  if  thou  dost  not  speak  to  warn  the 
wicked  from  his  way,  that  wicked  man  shall  die  in  his 
iniquity  ;  but  his  blood  will  I  require  at  thine  hand."* 
When  we  remember  that^  and  have  besides  the  con- 
sciousness that  he  is  near  us  who  has  said,t  ''  Lo  I  am 
with  you  always,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world," 
the  fear  of  man  will  be  banished    by  the  desire  to 


*  Ezekiel  xxxiii.  'j-'^.  t  Matthew  xxviii.  20. 


THE  QUALITIES  OF  AN  EFFECTIVE  SERMON.    143 

serve  God,  and  there  will  be  that  about  us  which  will 
make  our  hearers  feel  that  it  is  with  God,  rather  than 
with  us,  that  they  have  specially  to  do.  ''  The  Lord 
God  of  Israel,  before  whom  I  stand,"  said  Elijah  when 
he  confronted  Ahab,  and  in  these  words  we  have  the 
open  secret  of  his  dauntless  demeanor.  Let  us  stand 
consciously  in  the  presence  of  the  living  God  when 
we  are  in  the  pulpit,  and  every  other  feeling  and  fear 
will  be  overmastered  in  the  determination  to  be  faith- 
ful to  Him  in  the  service  of  our  people. 

The  minister's  bearing  should  be  in  keeping  with 
the  words  of  Paul,  "  I  am  not  ashamed  of  the  gospel 
of  Christ,  for  it  is  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation  to 
every  one  that  believeth  ;  "*  and  when  he  feels  in  that 
way,  he  will  be  ready  to  preach  it  anywhere,  whether 
in  the  centres  of  intellectual  culture  and  fashionable 
refinement,  or  in  the  haunts  of  wickedness,  where 
Satan  has  his  seat.  When  we  begin  to  apologize  for 
the  truth,  or  in  any  way  to  lower  the  flag  of  Him 
whose  messengers  we  are  before  the  arrogance  of  the 
world,  our  influence  is  on  the  wane.  But  with  courage 
in  our  hearts,  the  battle  is  half  won,  even  before  we 
enter  the  lists ;  and  when  men  see  our  boldness,  they 
will  "  take  knowledge  of  us  that  we  have  been  with 
Jesus.  \  "  Our  bodily  presence  may  be  ''  weak  "  and 
our  '^  speech  contemptible,"  but  our  boldness,  if  it  be 
seen  to  spring  from  our  conviction  that  God  is  with 
us,  will  be  itself  a  sermon,  and  will  make  men  say 
regarding  us,  as  was  said  of  an  humble  Scottish  pas- 


*  Romans  i.  16.  +  Acts  iv.  13. 


144 


THE  MINISTRY  OF   THE   WORD. 


tor,  ''That  man  preaches  as  if  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
was  at  his  elbow."  So  preached  the  first  apostles, 
and  so  must  we  if  we  are  to  have  repeated  among  us 
the  blessings  of  Pentecost  or  the  successes  of  the  early 
Church. 

But  as  another  element  of  effectiveness  in  the 
preacher,  I  name  tenderness.  It  may  be  thought  by 
some  that  this  is  thoroughly  incompatible  with 
courage,  but  in  reality  it  is  only  its  complement. 
Without  tenderness  the  courage  would  stiffen  into 
harshness.  Without  courage  the  tenderness  would 
degenerate  into  tepid  sentimentalism.  In  the  union 
of  the  two,  we  get  the  highest  excellence  of  both  ; 
the  tenderness  shading  the  courage  into  loving  faith- 
fulness ;  and  the  courage  giving  principle  to  the 
tenderness,  so  that  its  manifestation  is  in  harmony 
with  rectitude.  How  admirably  these  qualities  were, 
blended  in  Paul !  We  think  of  him  usually,  indeed, 
as  the  stern  reprover,  the  dauntless  hero,  the  uncom- 
promising champion  of  truth,  but  there  were  in  his 
soul  great  fountains  of  tenderness,  which  ever  and 
anon  overflowed  in  tears.  Thus  he  tells  the  Thessa- 
lonians  that  he  was  "  gentle  among  them  "  as  "  a  nurse 
cherishing  her  children ; "'"  and  when  he  was  con- 
strained in  his  letter  to  the  Philippiansf  to  testify 
against  some  who  were  ''  the  enemies  of  the  cross  of 
Christ,"  he  did  so,  ''  even  weeping."  So  also  among 
the    Ephesians, :j:    ''by  the   space  of  three  years   he 


*  I  Thess.  ii.  7.  f  Phil.  iii.  18.  J  Acts  xx.  31. 


THE  (QUALITIES  OF  AN  EFFECTIVE  SERMON.    145 

ceased  not  to  warn  every  one  night  and  day  with 
tears."  Now  there  is  no  doubt  that  in  this  gentleness 
lay  much  of  his  power. 

And  he  was,  in  this  respect,  only  the  follower  of 
the  Lord  Jesus  himself.  How  tenderly  He  dealt  with 
the  Pharisaic  Nicodemus,  as  well  as  with  the  woman 
at  the  well !  How  lovingly  He  received  the  publicans 
and  sinners  when  they  came  unto  Him !  How  like  a 
mother  with  her  children  He  was  in  His  training  of 
His  disciples,  teaching  them  as  they  were  willing  to 
be  taught,  dealing  with  them  often  in  the  way  of 
indirectness,  and  having  ever  as  the  background  even 
of  His  reproofs.  His  love,  shading  and  softening  its 
severity ;  yet,  singularly  enough,  making  it  thereby 
only  the  more  effective.  Truly,  by  "  His  gentleness  " 
He  made  them  ''  great."  And,  if  we  would  educate 
our  people  into  lives  of  holiness,  we  must  imbibe 
His  spirit. 

Many  men  are  all  courage,  and  many  are  all  tender- 
ness. But  few  combine  them  in  one  and  the  same 
address,  yet  that  is  what  is  most  needed  in  our  pul- 
pits in  these  days.  We  want  the  amalgamation  of 
the  two,  for  the  tenderest  things  are  then  most  apt  to 
stir  up  to  practical  reformation  when  they  are  uttered 
by  one  whose  courage  has  not  flinched  from  the 
proclamation  of  God's  law;  and  the  sternest  things 
are  then  the  strongest,  when  the  tear-drop  quivers  in 
the  eye  of  him  who  utters  them.  When,  therefore,  we 
are  in  the  tender  mood,  we  ought  to  give  good  heed 
that  we  manifest  courage ;  and  when  we  are  dealing 
in  the  terror  of  the  Lord,  then  is  the  time  to  culti- 
vate peculiar  tenderness.  7 


146  THE  MINISTRY  OF    THE    WORD. 

But  how  shall  we  acquire  this  gentleness  ?  There 
is  but  one  answer,  by  remembering  what  we  were 
ourselves,  and  how  God  dealt  with  us.  Very  sugges- 
tive here,  to  us  all,  is  the  case  of  John  Newton — great, 
strong  man  that  he  was,  but  with  a  heart  as 
tender  as  his  intellect  was  vigorous."^  Jay  tells  the 
following  story  of  an  interview  with  him :  "  When  I 
one  day  called  upon  him,  he  said,  *  I  am  glad  to  see 
you,  for  I  have  just  received  a  letter  from  Bath,  and 
you  may  know  something  of  the  writer,'  mentioning 
his  name.  I  told  him  I  did,  and  that  he  had  been  for 
years  a  hearer  of  mine,  but  he  was  a  most  awful 
character,  and  almost  in  all  evil.  '  But,'  said  he,  *  he 
writes  now  like  a  penitent.'  I  said,  '  He  may  be  such, 
but  if  he  be,  I  shall  never  despair  of  the  conversion 
of  any  one  again.'  '■  Oh  ! '  said  he,  '  I  never  did  since 
God  saved  me.'  And  the  same  authority  informs  us 
that  on  the  wall  of  his  study  at  Olney,  just  over  his 
desk,  he  had  in  very  large  letters  these  words,  "  Re- 
member that  thou  wast  a  bondman  in  the  land  of 
Egypt,  and  the  Lord  thy  God  redeemed  thee."  Who 
can  doubt  that  in  the  spirit  which  prompted  him  to 
put  these  words  there,  we  have  the  secret  of  his 
power  in  dealing  with  hardened  sinners?  and  the 
source  whence  flowed  those  Cardiphonia  which  have 
so  refreshed  every  reader  of  his  works.  When  Jesus 
healed  the  leper.  Retouched  him,  and  thereby  He  did 
as  much  good  to  the  poor  man's  soul  as  to  his  body ; 
''  for  here  "  might  the  outcast  sufferer  have  said,  ''  is 

*  Autobiography  and  Reminiscences  of  the  Rev.  William  Jay, 
pp.  275-277. 


THE  QUALITIES  OF  AN  EFFECTIVE  SERMON,    i^y 

one,  and  He  the  purest  of  them  all,  who  is  not  ashamed 
to  come  into  contact  with  me."  So  if  we  would 
benefit  men  we  must  come  into  heart  contact  with 
them.  But  how  is  that  to  be  accomplished?  Let 
our  common  speech  instruct  us.  We  say  of  a  tender 
utterance,  that  it  is  "  touching."  So,  by  the  hand  of 
gentleness,  we  touch  the  soul  of  the  hearer,  and  if  we 
be  ourselves  in  sympathy  with  Jesus,  having  our  other 
hand  of  faith  in  His,  there  will  be  healing  in  the  touch. 
"Virtue  will  go  out  of  us,"  and  in  the  strength  of 
that,  the  sinner  will  be  encouraged  to  seek  his  Saviour. 

But  no  make-believe  gentleness  will  produce  such 
effects.  To  be  thus  operative  our  tenderness  must  be 
true.  The  falsetto  of  the  melodrama  has  no  efficacy 
in  the  pulpit.  The  tear  that  drops  upon  our  Bible 
must  be  sincere ;  ^  and  so  again  we  come  back  to 
those  elements  of  earnestness  on  which  already  I  have 
so  fully  insisted,  for  only  when  we  are  intensely  con- 
vinced of  the  truth  of  what  we  say,  and  have  a  vivid 
realization  of  the  circumstances  oi"  our  hearers,  can 
we  be  really  compassionate. 

"And  Jesus  saw  a  great  multitude,  and  was  moved 
with  compassion  toward  them.  "  f  How  often,  as  I 
have  entered  my  pulpit,  have  these  words  come  rush- 
ing into  my  heart ;  and  if  I  have  been  in  any  degree 
successful  in  comforting  the  sorrowful  or  directing  the 
perplexed,  or  strengthening  the  tempted,  it  has  been 
because    I    have  tried   to   take   for   my  motto  as   a 


*  See  Cowper's  Eulogy  of  Whitefield  in  his  poem  on  Hope. 
t  Matt.  xiv.  14. 


148  ^^^  MINISTRY   OF   THE    WORD. 

preacher  the  words  of  my  Master,  "  I  will  not  send 
them  away  fasting,  lest  they  faint  in  the  way."  * 

The  nearer  you  keep  to  Him,  and  the  more  closely 
you  study  the  necessities  of  your  people,  the  more 
easy  will  it  be  for  you  to  be  gentle  toward  them. 
Never  forget  that  they  are  always  needing  help  ;  and 
remember  always,  that  you  are  the  servant  of  Him 
of  whom  it  was  said,  "  A  bruised  reed  shall  he  not 
break,  and  the  smoking  flax  shall  he  not  quench." 
Then  tenderness  will  come  to  you  as  the  habit  of 
your  Christian  life,  and  will  give  its  soft  and  search- 
ing undertone  to  all  your  words. 

But  I  have  said  nothing  in  all  this  regarding  the 
manner  of  delivery ;  and  I  have  not  touched  upon 
the  vexed  question  of  the  use  of  the  manuscript. 
Nor  is  there  any  necessity  that  I  should  go  at  any 
length  into  the  consideration  of  such  matters.  Given 
burning  earnestness,  unflinching  courage,  and  sympa- 
thetic tendernesSj^^  in  the  preacher,  and  those  other 
things  may  be  very  safely  left  to  take  care  of  them- 
selves. He  who  is  characterized  by  these  three  quali- 
ties, will  very  soon  come  to  the  discovery  of  what  is 
best  for  him,  and  will  ultimately  concentrate  his  ener- 
gies on  the  doing  of  that  effectively.  One  man  here, 
cannot  lay  down  the  law  for  another ;  neither  ought 
one  man  to  cavil  at  or  condemn  the  practice  of  an- 
other. The  preacher  who  rivets  the  attention  of  the 
hearer,  and  moves  his  heart,  and  leads  him  for  the 


*  Matt.  XV.  32. 


THE  QUALITIES  OF  AN  EFFECTIVE  SERMON.    149 

moment  to  forget  everything  but  the  truth  which  is 
set  before  him,  has  thereby  vindicated  his  own  excel- 
lence, no  matter  what  plan  he  has  adopted.  That  a 
manuscript  must  necessarily  impair  the  power  of  a 
speaker,  cannot  be  successfully  maintained  in  the  face 
of  such  cases  as  those  of  Edwards  and  Chalmers. 
That  free  speech  must  always  promote  efficiency  in 
the  pulpit,  will  not  be  assented  to  by  those  who  are 
condemned  to  listen  from  time  to  time  to  men  who 
are  more  remarkable  for  fluency  than  for  force.  A 
discourse  may  be  delivered  with  as  little  animation 
or  fervor  as  if  it  had  been  read  with  the  most 
slavish  closeness ;  and  another  may  be  read  with  as 
much  freedom  and  fire  as  if  it  had  been  delivered. 

Abstractly,  of  course,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that 
free  speech  is  the  normal  method  for  the  pulpit.  Yet, 
a  question  like  this  is  not  to  be  settled  on  mere  ab- 
stract principles ;  and  the  very  fact  that  different  ways 
have  been  adopted  by  different  men,  all  of  whom  were 
first-rate  preachers,  is  a  proof  that  no  one  mode  can 
be  declared  to  be  the  only  best.  Some,  having  writ- 
ten their  discourse  fully,  commit  it  to  memory,  and 
deliver  it  verbatim.  This  plan  has  been  supposed  by 
many  to  involve  tremendous  drudgery;  and  I  sup- 
pose that  they  who  so  speak  regarding  it,  would  find 
it  to  be  a  dreadful  task.  But,  having  myself  prac- 
ticed it  for  the  first  ten  years  of  my  ministry,  I  can 
attest  that  it  did  not  in  any  degree  hamper  me.  "The 
memory,"  as  Jay  has  said,  ''  is  like  a  friend,  and  loves 
to  be  trusted,"  so  that  the  labor  of  an  hour  and  a 


150  THE  MINISTRY  OF   THE    WORD. 

half  came  with  me  to  be  sufficient  for  the  mastery 
of  a  discourse  that  was  newly-written  ;  and  I  own 
to  a  feeling  of  regret  that  I  ever  gave  up  the  practice. 
Still,  I  found  that  the  more  carefully  I  had  prepared  a 
sermon,  it  was  the  more  difficult  to  commit  it  to 
memory ;  and  as  it  was  just  then  that  I  wished  to 
give  it  with  verbal  accuracy,  I  was  led  to  put  the 
manuscript  before  me,  and  use  it  as  occasion  required. 
After  I  had  done  that  a  few  times,  I  discovered  that 
I  had  lost  my  facility  in  remembering,  and  so,  ever  since, 
having  no  aptitude  whatever  for  extempore  speech,  I 
have  endeavored  to  train  myself  to  use  a  manuscript 
with  effect.  If  I  might  speak  from  my  own  expe- 
rience, therefore,  I  would  say,  that  incinoritcr  preach- 
ing is  the  method  which  has  the  greatest  advantages, 
with  the  fewest  disadvantages ;  extempore  preach- 
ing is  the  method  in  the  employment  of  which  suc- 
cess is  hardest,  and  failure  commonest ;  and  preaching 
from  a  manuscript  is  the  method  in  which,  if  he  choose 
to  train  himself  in  it,  the  man  of  average  ability  will 
make,  on  the  whole,  the  best  of  his  talents,  and  make 
the  fewest  failures.  There  are  not  above  half  a  score 
of  men  in  a  century  who  can  rise  to  the  foremost 
places  for  usefulness  and  eminence  through  extem- 
pore speech.  If  you  be  one  of  these,  there  will  be  in 
you  that  irrepressibility  which  is  the  mark  of  genius, 
and  which  will  force  itself  out  at  length  against  every 
obstacle.  If  you  be  not  one  of  these,  then,  with  all 
respect  to  those  who  I  know  differ  from  me  on  this 
subject,  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say,  that  it  will  be  ten 


THE  QUALITIES  OF  AN  EFFECTIVE  SERMON.    151 

times  better  for  you,  and  a  thousand  times  better  for 
your  hearers,  that  you  should  educate  yourself  into 
the  free  and  unfettered  use  of  a  full  manuscript. 

Observe  what  I  have  said,  '^  educate  yourself  into 
the  free  and  unfettered  use  of  a  full  manuscript."  I 
do  not  mean  that  you  should  keep  your  face  close  to 
the  desk,  and  never  lift  your  eyes  from  the  page 
unless  it  be  to  look  right  up  into  the  ventilator  that 
is  overhead  ;  but  that  you  should  preach  from  your 
manuscript.  Write  in  a  fair,  round,  legible  hand ; 
marking  the  beginnings  of  your  sentences,  and  the 
different  stages  of  your  argument  in  such  a  way  that 
your  eye  may  easily  catch  them.  Spend  a  couple  of 
hours  with  your  manuscript  before  you  enter  the  pul- 
pit, seeking  to  catch  the  spirit  of  your  theme  and  to 
kindle  under  the  enthusiasm  of  your  words.  Do  not 
disdain  to  attend  to  such  little  matters  as  the  folding 
up  of  the  corner  of  each  page,  so  that  you  may  turn 
it  over  without  hindrance.  And  above  all,  remember 
whose  messenger  you  are,  and  what  you  design  to 
attain  through  the  special  message  which  you  mean 
to  deliver.  Rise  to  your  work  from  your  knees,  and 
then  your  manuscript  will  be  no  more  a  hindrance  to 
you  than  its  wings  are  to  the  bird,  or  its  sails  are  to 
the  ship.  It  will  help  you  to  rise  ;  it  will  give  energy 
to  your  movement ;  it  will  give  calmness  to  your  soul 
even  in  your  most  impassioned  moments,  and  before 
you  have  gone  on  many  minutes,  your  hearers  will 
forget  alike  the  manuscript  and  yourself  in  their 
solemn  appreciation  of  the  truth  you  speak. 

Make  your  choice  of  the  method  which  suits  you 


1^2  THE  MINISTRY  OF  THE   WORD. 

best,  seek  to  do  your  best  in  that  method,  and  do 
both  out  of  regard  to  Jesus  and  the  souls  of  men.  It 
is  not  the  manuscript  that  either  makes  or  mars 
efficiency,  it  is  the  man  behind  it.  If  he  be  cold,  the 
absence  of  the  paper  will  not  make  him  warm ;  but 
if  he  be  on  fire,  the  paper,  as  in  the  case  of  Chalmers, 
may  only  make  the  blaze  the  stronger. 


# 


LECTURE   VII. 

EXPOSITORY    PREACHING. 


LECTURE    VII. 

EXPOSITORY     PREACHING. 

TD  Y  expository  preaching,  I  mean  that  method  of 
-*-^  pulpit  discourse  which  consists  in  the  consecu- 
tive interpretation,  and  practical  enforcement,  of  a 
book  of  the  sacred  canon.  It  differs,  thus,  from  top- 
ical preaching,  which  may  be  described  as  the  selec- 
tion of  a  clause,  or  verse,  or  section  of  the  inspired 
Word,  from  which  some  one  principle  is  evolved  and 
kept  continuously  before  the  hearer's  mind,  as  the 
speaker  traces  its  manifold  applications  to  present 
circumstances,  and  to  human  life ;  from  doctrinal 
preaching,  which  prosecutes  a  system  of  Biblical  in- 
duction in  regard  to  some  great  truth,  such  as  justifi- 
cation, regeneration,  the  atonement,  or  the  like,  gath- 
ering together  all  the  portions  of  holy  writ  that  bear 
upon  it,  and  deducing  from  them  some  formulated 
inference ;  from  hortatory  preaching,  which  sets  itself 
to  the  enforcement  of  some  neglected  duty,  or  the 
exposure  of  some  prevalent  iniquity  ;  and  from  bio- 
graphical preaching,  which,  taking  some  Scripture 
character  for  its  theme,  gives  an  analysis  of  the  moral 
nature  of  the  man,  like  that  which  Bishop  Butler  has 
made  in  his  wonderful  discourse  on  Balaam,  and 
points  from  it  lessons  of  warning  or  example. 

(155) 


156  TJIE  MINISTRY  OF  THE  WORD. 

But,  though  thus  distinct  from  each  other,  these 
several  methods  of  pulpit  discourse  are  not  inconsis- 
tent with  each  other.  Into  every  sermon  exposition 
must,  in  some  degree,  enter.  It  must,  indeed,  form 
the  foundation  on  which  every  discourse  must  be 
reared,  if,  at  least,  it  is  to  be  a  sermon  proper,  and 
not  a  mere  essay,  or  lecture,  such  as  one  may  hear  at 
an  ordinary  Lyceum.  Moreover,  into  the  regularly 
maintained  expository  series,  all  these  other  elements 
of  topical,  doctrinal,  hortatory,  and  biographic  inter- 
est will  come,  if  only  the  preacher  will  intelligently 
follow  the  course  of  argument  or  narrative  taken  by 
the  inspired  writer  whose  work  he  is  seeking  to  inter- 
pret. Practically,  therefore,  the  differentia  of  the 
method  of  preaching  of  which  I  am  now  to  treat,  is 
its  continuous  and  consecutive  character,  giving,  as 
it  does,  a  connected  view  either  of  a  history  or  a 
treatise. 

Now,  on  the  very  threshold  of  our  plea,  let  it  be 
distinctly  understood,  that  I  do  not  advocate  this 
mode  of  discourse  to  the  disparagement  or  neglect  of 
all  others.  He  who  desires  to  be  an  efficient  minis- 
ter will  endeavor  in  his  public  teachings  to  combine 
them  all.  My  own  practice  has  been,  for  many  years, 
to  give  up  one  of  the  services  of  each  Lord's  day  to 
the  systematic  exposition  of  some  book  of  Scripture, 
leaving  the  other  free  for  the  presentation  of  such 
subjects  as  may  be  suggested  to  me  by  the  occur- 
rences of  the  times,  or  the  circumstances  of  my  people. 
This  division  I  have  felt  to  be  not  only  very  con- 
venient,  but   also    extremely   serviceable.     You  will 


EXPOSITOR  V  PRE  A  CHING. 


157 


remember,  therefore,  that  in  my  after-remarks  I  do 
not  desire  to  exalt  expository  preaching  above  all 
other  varieties  of  pulpit  discourse,  far  less  to  urge 
it  upon  ministers  and  students  to  the  neglect  of 
every  other  method.  But,  as  it  seems  to  me  that 
this  mode  has  fallen  somewhat  into  reproach  and 
disuetude  among  us,  I  wish  to  speak  a  few  earnest 
words  in  favor  of  its  revival  and  more  general  adop- 
tion. 

Exposition  is  the  presentation  to  the  people,  in  an 
intelligible  and  forcible  manner,  of  the  meaning  of  the 
sacred  writer  which  has  been  first  settled  by  the 
preacher  for  himself,  by  the  use  of  those  grammatical 
and  historical  instruments  with  which  his  preparatory 
training  has  furnished  him.  It  is  not  the  mere  dilu- 
tion of  the  statements  of  the  sacred  writer  by  the 
repetition  of  his  thought  in  language  necessarily  less 
forcible  than  his  own,  for  that  would  make  it  only  a 
weak  and  watery  paraphrase  of  the  original.  Neither 
is  it  the  learned  and  exhaustive  enumeration  of  all 
the  interpretations  which  commentators,  ancient  and 
modern,  have  given  of  it.  Still  less  is  it  the  utterance 
of  a  few  pious  platitudes  in  the  way  of  inference  from 
it.  But  it  is  the  giving  of  a  simple  statement  of  the 
writer's  meaning,  with  the  grounds  on  which  the 
explanation  rests,  and  the  lessons  which  it  suggests 
whether  for  "  doctrine,  reproof,  correction,  or  in- 
struction, in  righteousness."  It  is  the  honest  answer 
which  the  preacher  gives,  after  faithful  study,  to  these 
questions,  ''What  is  the  mind  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in 
this   passage?   and   what    is   its   bearing   on   related 


158  THE   MINISTRY  OF    THE    WORD. 

Christian  truths,  or  on  the  life  and  conversation  of 
the  Christian  himself?"  If  it  be  an  argument  that  is 
before  him,  he  will  analyze  it  from  its  premises  to  its 
conclusion,  noting  the  different  steps  in  the  process, 
marking  the  illustrations  with  which  it  is  accompanied, 
and  pointing  out  its  pertinency  to  the  primary  pur- 
pose of  the  writer,  as  well  as  emphasizing  its  perma- 
nent importance  in  the  department  of  doctrine  or  of 
duty.  If  it  be  a  narrative,  he  will,  by  the  help  of  the 
historical  imagination,  seek  to  give  it  vividness  by 
reproducing  the  times  and  circumstances  to  which.it 
belongs  ;  then  going  beneath  the  surface,  he  will  en- 
deavor to  discover  those  principles  of  the  divine  ad- 
ministration which  it  illustrates,  and  so  he  will  find 
in  the  inspired  record  of  the  past  the  explanation  of 
the  present ;  and  in  some  degree  also  the  prophecy 
of  the  future.  If  it  be  a  parable,  he  will  try  to  obtain 
the  key  to  its  interpretation,  in  the  purpose  for  which 
it  was  spoken,  or  in  the  occasion  out  of  which  it 
sprung,  and  then  he  will  give  unity  to  his  exposition, 
by  making  everything  in  it  subservient  to  that,  guard- 
ing on  the  one  hand  against  the  spiritualization  of 
every  minute  particular,  and  on  the  other  against  the 
merging  of  everything  into  a  vague  and  dreamy  gene- 
rality. If  it  be  a  prophecy,  he  will  seize  the  central 
position  of  the  seer,  and  group  every  detail  around 
that,  remembering  evermore  that  "  the  testimony  of 
Jesus  is  the  Spirit  of  prophecy."  In  a  word,  he  will 
study  thoroughly  those  inspired  expositions  of  por- 
tions of  the  Old  Testament  which  are  given  in  the 
Epistles  to   the  Galatians   and    Hebrews,   and  those 


EXPO  SI  TOR  V  PRE  A  CHING.  1 5  q 

infallible  models  of  parabolic  interpretation  which  the 
Great  Teacher  Himself  has  furnished,  and  he  will 
endeavor  to  apply  the  principles  on  which  these  are 
constructed  to  all  similar  portions  of  the  Word  of 
God. 

In  dealing  with  historical  subjects,  special  attention 
should  be  given  to  the  vivifying  of  the  record  by  the 
reproduction  of  the  surroundings.  People  are  apt  to 
forget  that  the  Bible  heroes  were  men  of  like  passions 
with  themselves ;  and  we  should  endeavor  to  give 
humanness  to  them  in  all  our  descriptions.  The 
visitor  to  the  Ceramic  gallery  in  the  South  Kensing- 
ton Museum,  reads  on  the  etchings  of  each  window 
the  history  of  the  formation  of  the  articles  in  the  sec- 
tion beneath  it.  He  gazes  with  interest  on  the 
Chinese  productions,  and  as  he  looks  up  he  sees  upon 
the  window  a  representation  of  Chinese  potters  at 
their  toil.  He  admires  the  singular  ware  made  by 
Palissy,  and  as  he  raises  his  eyes  he  sees  on  the  win- 
dow the  image  of  the  persevering  Huguenot,  feeding 
his  furnace  with  the  broken  furniture  of  his  cottage, 
against  the  protest  of  his  pleading  wife.  Now,  what 
that  luminous  framework  is  to  each  case  in  that  inter- 
esting exhibition,  a  vivid  reproduction  of  the  scenes 
and  circumstances  of  sacred  history  is  to  the  charac- 
ters of  the  men  that  moved  in  them,  and  to  the  truths 
which  were  proclaimed  in  connection  with  them.  It 
is  the  appropriate  setting  to  the  precious  stone.  It 
hangs  the  picture  in  a  frame  that  is  itself  luminous 
and  instructive.  And  treated  thus  with  vigorous  im- 
agination and  practical  purpose,  the  Bible  becomes 


/ 


l6o  THE  MINISTRY  OF   THE    WORD. 

the  most  living,  the  most  interesting,  and  the  most 
stimulating  of  books. 

To  do  all  this  well,  however,  it  is  evident  that  great 
labor  will  be  needed,  while  the  attempt  will  furnish 
occasion  for  the  employment  of  some  of  the  noblest 
of  our  intellectual  powers.  It  requires  a  lively  im- 
agination ;  a  calm,  unbiased  judgment ;  a  correct 
scholarship,  and  a  true  homiletic  instinct,  to  lay  every 
thing  under  tribute  for  purposes  of  instruction  and 
edification.  Added  to  these,  a  large  acquaintance 
with  modern  literature  will  enable  the  preacher  to 
give  interest  to  his  discourses  by  pointing  out  the 
parallels  which  secular  history  presents  to  that  re- 
corded in  the  Book  of  God,  or  by  furnishing  him  with 
striking  illustrations  drawn  from  science  or  art,  from 
nature  or  from  the  works  of  man. 

The  method  to  be  pursued  in  expounding  a  book 
of  Scripture  will  vary  with  the  nature  of  the  book 
itself,  or  with  the  purpose  of  the  expositor.  In  gene- 
ral, however,  it  will  be  well  for  him  before  entering 
upon  such  a  work  to  read  the  book  through,  if  pos- 
sible, in  the  original  language.  Then,  he  will  endeavor 
to  divide  it  into  its  different  sections,  mapping  out 
his  course  thus  from  the  first.  Then,  as  each  of  these 
portions  falls  to  be  considered,  he  will  study  it  care- 
fully, seeking  to  find  some  principle  of  unity  in  it, 
around  which  he  may  crystallize  his  different  proposi- 
tions. Then,  with  this,  his  own  method  in  his  mind, 
and  having  first  satisfied  himself  as  to  the  meaning  of 
the  section,  he  will  read  all  that  his  library  contains 
upon  the  subject  (and  for  the  purpose  of  reference,  if 


EXPO  SI  TOR  Y  PRE  A  CHING.  1 6 1 

he  be  wise,  he  will  construct  an  index  to  his  library, 
entering  upon  an  interleaved  Bible  a  citation  of  the 
name  and  page  of  every  book  opposite  the  verse  or 
chapter  of  which  it  treats).  Then,  having  thus  sat- 
urated his  mind  with  the  subject,  and  seen  what 
others  have  said  upon  it,  he  will  leave  it  all  to  simmer 
and  settle  for  some  days,  and,  at  length,  sitting  down 
with  his  whole  soul  concentrated  upon  the  work,  he 
will  produce  a  discourse  which,  by  the  blessing  of 
God,  will  be  at  once  interesting  and  instructive,  stimu- 
lating and  suggestive  to  his  hearers.  Thus  from  week 
to  week  he  will  go  forward,  his  spirit  kindling  into  in- 
creasing enthusiasm  as  he  proceeds,  so  that  he  will 
forget  the  labor  in  the  joy.  His  people,  also,  catch- 
ing fire  from  him,  will  long  for  the  return  of  the  Lord's 
day,  that  they  may  renew  their  study  with  him,  and 
will  deeply  regret  when  by  sickness,  or  absence  from 
home,  they  are  deprived  of  one  of  the  series.  I  have 
seen  a  slimly  attended  second  service  gather  back 
into  itself  all  the  half-day  hearers  that  had  absented 
themselves  from  it,  and  draw  in  others  besides,  through 
the  adoption  by  the  minister  of  just  such  a  method  as 
this  ;  while  the  effect,  even  upon  those  who  have 
dropped  casually  in  upon  a  single  discourse,  has  been 
to  send  them  away  with  what  one  of  themselves 
called  "  a  new  appetite  for  the  Word  of  God." 

I  am  thus  brought  naturally  to  the  consideration 
of  the  advantages  which  are  connected  with  this 
method  of  ministerial  instruction,  and  among  these  I 
mention.  First,  the   fact  that  it  brings  both  preacher 


1 62  THE  MINISTRY  OF   THE    WORD. 

and  hearers  ifito  direct  a7id  iinuiediate  contact  with 
the  mind  of  the  Spirit,  The  open  Bible  on  the  sacred 
desk  is  the  token  that  both  speaker  and  auditors  re- 
gard it  as  the  ultimate  standard  of  aupeaL  In  the 
pulpit  the  minister  is  not,  ordinarily  speaking,  dealing 
with  those  who  repudiate  the  authority  of  the  Word 
of  God.  The  very  presence  of  his  people  in  the 
sanctuary  may  be  taken  by  him  as  an  admission  that 
''  they  are  all  present  before  God,  to  hear  what  is 
commanded  them  of  God."  There  may  be  excep- 
tional occasions  when  he  feels  bound  to  deal  with 
sceptical  objectors,  but,  as  a  general  rule,  the  pulpit 
is  not  the  place  for  that.  As  a  brother  once  said  to 
me,  "  When  I  am  in  the  pulpit,  I  am  not  there  to 
defend  the  Bible  ;  the  Bible  is  there  to  defend  me." 
The  great  aim  of  the  preacher  ought  to  be  to  set 
before  the  people  the  mind  of  God.  Now,  in  so  far 
as  he  is  successful,  that  is  precisely  what  the  expositor 
does.  In  the  topical  sermon,  there  may  be  many  of 
his  own  particular  opinions,  which  are  matters  of 
'-'  private  interpretation,"  or  of  '^  doubtful  disputa- 
tion." But  when  he  has  succeeded  in  convincing  his 
hearers  that  he  has  given  the  true  meaning  of  the 
passage  which  he  is  expounding,  he  can  say,  "  This  is 
the  mind  of  Christ,"  and  the  force  of  that  both  on 
him  and  them  will  be  overwhelming.  When  he  so 
speaks,  he  will  speak  "  with  authority  and  not  as  the 
scribes,"  and  mHen—wlU  feel  jhat  they  have  been 
bxmightJOaceJ:Q_face_wath_G^ 

Now,  it  is  in  the  production  of  this  impression  that 
the  peculiar  power  of  the  pulpit  consists.    Other  men 


EXPOSITOR  V  PRE  A  CHING.  \  63 

have  genius,  and  can  produce  wonderful  results  by 
the  flashes  of  its  erratic  lightening.  Other  men  have 
stores  of  information  on  which  they  can  draw  at  will, 
and  with  which  they  can  enrich  their  utterances. 
Other  men  have  force  of  logic  and  power  of  invective, 
by  which  they  can  bear  down  all  opposition.  But,  so 
long  as  the  preacher  is  wielding  these  alone,  he  has 
not  risen  to  his  distinctive  office,  and  is  not  clothing 
himself  with  his  own  peculiar  power.  That  which 
gives  him  the  might  over  men  which  every  true 
preacher  ought  to  wield,  is  that  he  can  show  that  he 
has  the  Word  of  God  behind  him.  Unless  he  can  im- 
press that  upon  his  hearers,  he  is  no  more  to  them 
than  the  political  orator  or  the  literary  essayist.  Unless 
he  can  make  men  feel  that  it  is  not  so  much  with 
himself,  as  with  God,  that  they  have  to  do,  the  most 
superb  mental  endowments  will  not  enable  him  to 
secure  the  great  end  for  which  his  -office  has  been  in- 
stituted ;  but  if  he  has  been  successful  in  conveying 
that  impression,  he  has  proved  his  fitness  for  his  work, 
even  if  he  have  no  grace  of  oratory  or  charm  of 
diction.  "  By  manifestation  of  the  truth  to  commend 
ourselves  to  every  man's  conscience  in  the  sight  of 
God  " — that  is  our  work  as  ministers  of  the  Gospel ; 
and  if  through  the  neglect  of  the  exposition  of  the 
Word  of  God,  or  through  the  deceitful  handling  of 
that  Word,  we  fail  to  use  the  power  which  is  distinc- 
tively our  own,  we  shall  be  like  Samson  shorn  of  his 
locks,  and  may,  by  and  by,  descend  so  low  as  to  make 
sport  for  the  Philistines  of  our  generation.  Hence, 
as  the  special  engine   of  the  preacher's  influence,  I 


164  THE  MINISTRY  OF   THE   WORD. 

advocate  most  earnestly  the  systematic  exposition  of 
the  sacred  Scriptures. 

A  second  advantage  of  this  method  is,  that  it  se- 
cures variety  in  the  ministrations  of  the  preacher. 
Every  man  has  his  own  peculiar  idiosyncracies,  and, 
yielding  to  these,  he  will  be  attracted  more  strongly 
and  more  frequently  to  some  subjects  than  to  others. 
Unless,  therefore,  the  preacher  pursue  some  regular 
course  of  exposition,  he  will  be  in  danger  of  confining 
himself  to  a  few  favorite  themes,  and  ringing  the 
changes  upon  them,  until  his  hearers  become  weary 
both  of  him  and  of  them.  But  if  he  follow  the 
course  of  some  book,  or  trace  out  consecutively  the 
chapters  of  some  sacred  biography,  he  will  discover 
the  same  old  truths,  with  ever  fresh  surroundings,  and 
will  secure  that  variety  in  unity,  which  is  the  charm 
of  God's  book  of  revelation  as  much  as  of  His  book 
of  nature. 

It  is  the  same  Mont  Blanc  which  the  traveller  sees 
from  the  bridge  of  Sallanches,  from  the  summit  of  the 
Col-de-Balme,  and  from  the  sweet  seclusion  of  the 
Valley  of  Chamouny.  But  each  of  these  points  of 
view  brings  new  features  into  prominence,  which  have 
a  special  fascination  of  their  own.  So  it  is  the  same 
truth  of  justification  that  we  look  on  in  the  Epistles 
to  the  Romans  and  Galatians,  and  in  the  general 
Epistle  of  James ;  but  in  each  we  have  some  feature 
that  we  have  not  in  the  others ;  and  as  we  contem- 
plate that,  we  have  an  interest  which  the  others  failed 
to  awaken' in  us.  Some  time  ago,  in  visiting  an 
English  colliery,  I  was  shown,  In  the  office,  a  beauti- 


EXPOSITOR  Y  PRE  A  CHIXG.  165 

ful  scale  of  the  different  strata  through  which  they 
had  sunk  the  shaft  some  300  fathoms  deep.  It  was 
very  interesting,  and  gave  me  a  good  idea  enough  of 
the  geology  of  the  place ;  but  when,  a  few  days  after, 
walking  out  with  my  friend,  we  came  on  a  peculiar- 
looking,  up-jutting  rock,  I  learned  something  about 
the  nature  of  the  underlying  treasures  which  the 
table  in  the  counting-house  had  failed  to  teach.  Now, 
that  perfectly  illustrates  the  difference  between  sys- 
tematic theology  and  Biblical  exposition.  In  the 
former,  you  have  everything  arranged  by  the  scale  ; 
in  the  latter,  you  come  upon  truths  in  situ,  and  there 
is  much  of  interest  in  the  discovery,  and  of  instruction 
in  the  surroundings. 

He  who  preaches  merely  on  the  general  topic  of 
regeneration,  must  treat  it  in  a  more  or  less  stereo- 
typed fashion,;  but  let  him,  in  the  course  of  his  exposi- 
tions, come  upon  such  a  passage  as  that  in  the  begin- 
ning of  Peter's  first  epistle  :  ''  Blessed  be  the  God  and 
Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  which  according 
to  his  abundant  mercy  hath  begotten  us  again  unto 
a  lively  hope  by  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ 
from  the  dead  ;"  or  such  an  one  as  that  in  the  first 
chapter  of  the  Epistle  of  James :  ''  Of  his  own  will 
begat  he  us  by  the  word  of  truth,  that  we  should 
be  a  kind  of  first  fruits  of  his  creatures,"  and  he  will, 
as  a  conscientious  interpreter,  be  compelled  to  look 
at  related  topics  in  such  a  way  as  to  give  new  interest 
to  the  great  central  subject.  Is  it  impertinent  in  me, 
brethren,  to  suggest  that  the  neglect  of  exposition 
may  have  something   to   do   with   the   brief  average 


1 66  THE  MINISTRY  OF    THE    WORD. 

duration  of  pastorates  among  us,  concerning  which  so 
•many  regrets  are  expressed  ?  The  merely  topical 
preacher  will  very  soon  wear  himself  out,  because  he 
is  drawing  simply  on  his  own  resources  all  through. 
But  the  expositor  has  the  Word  of  God  before  him, 
and  his  life-time  will  not  exhaust  that.  As  he  follows 
the  discourses  of  Jesus,  or  the  reasonings  of  the  Apos- 
tles, or  the  devotional  meditations  of  the  Psalmist, 
the  infinite  variety  of  these  utterances  will  keep  him 
from  running  into  ruts  of  thought,  or  expression,  or 
topic,  and  he  will  be  like  the  well-instructed  scribe  of 
whom  the  Master  speaks,  ''  Bringing  out  of  his  treas- 
ure-house things  new  and  old."  I  have  heard  a  ven- 
erable minister  tell  that  Dr.  John  Dick,  the  well- 
known  professor  of  theology  in  Scotland,  went,  in  the 
early  days  of  his  ministry,  to  a  neighboring  clergy- 
man in  the  deepest  distress,  saying  to  him,  "  What 
shall  I  do  ?  I  have  preached  all  I  know  to  the  peo- 
ple, and  have  nothing  else  to  give  them.  I  have  gone 
through  the  catechism,  and  what  have  I  more  ?  "  To 
which  his  friend  replied,  "  The  catechism  !  Take  the 
Bible,  man.  It  will  take  you  a  long  while  to  exhaust 
that."  For  variety  and  suggestiveness,  for  fullness 
and  inexhaustibility,  there  is  no  book  like  the  Bible. 
Make  it,  therefore,  your  constant  theme,  until  the 
people  call  you  as  they  did  Luther,  Doctor  Biblicus, 
for  that  is  the  most  worthy  degree  a  minister  can 
earn. 

A  third  advantage  of  this  method  is  that  in  follow- 
ing it  out  tJie  preacher  ivill  be  compelled  to  treat 
many   subjects  from    which    otherivise   he  might  have 


EXPOSITOR  Y  PRE  A  CHING.  1 6/ 

sJiriink,  but  which  ought  to  be  dealt  with  by  him,  if 
he  would  not  "  shun  to  declare  all  the  counsel  of 
God."  Every  pastor  knows  that  there  are  almost 
always  some  members  of  his  congregation  who  speci- 
ally need  to  be  enlightened  on  some  points  of  duty, 
or  of  danger.  But  if  he  were  to  select  a  subject  purely 
for  them,  his  object  would  be  defeated,  because  they  \ 
would  be  apt  to  suspect  hini  of  deliberate  intentioi> 
to  strike  them,  and  would  fesent  that  which  they  felt 
to  be  a  preachingjz/_th£i]i,j;:atlier_thaii^  Now, 

in  following  a  regular  course  of  exposition,  opportu- 
nities are  continually  furnished  to  us  for  the  presenta- 
tion of  timely  truths,  while  no  one  can  say  that  we 
have  gone  out  of  our  way  for  the  special  purpose  of 
reaching  his  conscience. 

Besides,  there  are  whole  classes  of  topics  which 
would  be  completely  ignored  by  us  if  we  were  to  be 
guided  only  by  our  own  tastes  and  feelings  in  the 
choice  of  subjects.  One  man  would  dwell  exclusively 
on  doctrinal  matters  to  the  neglect  of  the  practical. 
Another,  catching  the  modern  infection,  would  sneer 
at  doctrine,  and  present  subjects  without  connecting 
them  in  any  remotest  manner  with  the  cross  of  Christ. 
One  would  deal  constantly  with  the  love  of  God,  as 
if  there  were  no  other  text  in  the  Bible  than  the 
glorious  declaration  that  "  God  is  love."  Another 
would  be  forever  dwelling  on  the  justice  of  God's 
government,  as  if  there  were  no  fatherly  heart  in  Him 
who  rules  the  world.  One  would  descant  unweariedly 
on  the  sovereignty  of  God,  and  be  forever  preaching 
on  the  subjects  of  election  and  forc-ordination,  forget- 


1 68  THE  MINISTRY  OF    THE    WORD. 

ting  the  gracious  invitations  which  are  addressed  to 
all.  Another,  in  his  eagerness  to  press  home  these 
invitations,  might  ignore  the  agency  of  the  Holy- 
Ghost,  and  so  do  dishonor  to  the  Comforter.  And 
thus,  in  spite  of  themselves,  perhaps,  indeed,  uncon- 
sciously to  themselves,  each  would  give  a  defective 
presentation  of  truth. 

Half-truths  are  always  the  most  insidious  forms  of 
error,  and  it  is  to  be  feared  that  many  of  the  half- 
truths  which  are  so  popular  in  these  days,  have  had 
their  origin  in  the  neglect  of  a  thorough  and  system- 
atic expository  treatment  of  the  Word  of  God  as  a 
whole.  By  following  the  plan  which  I  am  advocat- 
ing, however,  we  would,  in  course  of  time,  go  round 
the  whole  globe  of  revealed  truth,  and  learn  to  preach 
each  doctrine  in  its  own  proportion,  or,  as  Paul  has 
phrased  it,  ''  To  prophesy  according  to  the  propor- 
tion of  the  faith."  ^^ 

So,  again,  we  should  be  led  to  distribute  our  atten- 
tion fairly  between  the  different  books  of  the  Bible 
itself.  A  venerable  minister  used  to  say  that  there 
were  always  sounding  in  his  ears  the  cries  of  neglected 
texts  of  Scripture,  saying  to  him,  ''  Won't  you  show 
how  important  we  are?"  So,  I  often  think,  I  hear 
the  complaints  of  neglected  books  of  the  Word  of 
God.  You  would  be  astonished  at  the  result,  if  only 
for  twelve  months  you  were  to  keep  a  register  of  the 
texts  that  are  preached  from  in  any  one  of  our  sanc- 
tuaries.    How  limited   is   the  area  within  which  we 


*  Romans  xii.  6. 


EXPOSITOR  V  PRE  A  CHING. 


169 


confine  ourselves  in  the  selection  of  subjects !  Some 
are  constantly  in  the  Old  Testament  ;  others  appear 
to  think  that  the  Jewish  Scriptures  are  of  no  use  to 
us.  Many  are  passionate  in  their  devotion  to  the 
psalms ;  and  some  see  no  beauty  in  them  that  they 
should  be  desired.  The  Gospels  are  the  special  fav- 
orites of  some,  and  the  Epistles  are  too  frequently 
ignored  by  all.  Now  it  is  not  safe  to  neglect  even 
those  books  of  Scripture  which  seem  to  be  the  driest 
and  least  interesting.  We  should  not  forget  that  it 
was  from  the  apparently  uninviting  pages  of  the  book 
of  Deuteronomy  that  our  Lord  Jesus  drew  those 
weapons  with  which  He  foiled  the  adversary  in 
the  wilderness ;  and  if  we  will  only  enter  upon  the 
work  with  a  devout  heart,  and  an  earnest  spirit,  we 
may  find  the  richest  interest  and  the  rarest  profit,  in 
some,  at  first — shall  I  say  repulsive  ? — portion  of  the 
Word  of  God. 

Thus,  take  the  history  of  Nehemiah.  Most  people 
would  be  inclined  to  pass  it  by.  They  would  extend 
to  the  book,  as  a  whole,  the  criticism  pronounced  by 
a  Scotch  woman  upon  the  tenth  chapter  of  it  under 
the  following  circumstances.  Her  husband  was  read- 
ing that  portion  of  Scripture  at  family  worship,  and 
as,  in  the  failing  light  of  the  Summer  evening,  he  had 
some  difficulty  in  making  out  the  proper  names  which 
it  contained,  he  said,  "Jenny,  woman,  bring  a  can- 
dle!" "'Deed,  no!"  was  the  answer;  "the  loss 
would  be  more  than  the  profit,  with  that  chapter,  ony 
way  !  "  But  I  can  testify  from  personal  experience, 
that  one  of  the  most  interesting  and  profitable  series 
8 


lyo  THE  MIAUSTRY  OF  THE   WORD. 

of  discourses  which  I  have  ever  preached,  was  found- 
ed on  that  book.  Sometimes  the  soil  which  is  most 
j"ugged  on  the  surface,  covers  the  richest  veins  of  ore ; 
and,  not  unfrequently,  the  most  beautiful  flowers  are 
seen  growing  out  of  the  crevices  of  the  rock.  Thus 
it  is  with  many  of  the  neglected  books  of  the  Bible, 
for  if  we  will  only  dig  beneath  the  surface  of  them  we 
shall  discover  many  mines  of  wealth,  and  by  going 
through  them  all,  we  shall  make  ourselves  '^  thorough- 
ly furnished  unto  all  good  works." 

Then  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  in  expounding 
thus,  we  make  our  hearers  sharers  with  us  in  our 
privileges. 

So,  as  a  fourth  advantage  of  this  method,  I  name 
the  fact  that  it  will  promote  Biblical  intelligence 
among  our  people.  Those  who  have  not  investigated 
the  matter  will  be  surprised  to  find  how  limited  an 
acquaintance  many  church-goers  have  with  the  sacred 
Scriptures.  They  may  be  acute  in  business,  and  well 
''  up"  in  all  matters  of  politics,  while  yet  they  have 
never  carefully  perused  many  portions  of  the  Word 
of  God.  There  are  whole  books  of  the  Bible  which 
to  many  worshipers  in  our  pews  are  as  much  an  un- 
explored territory  as  is  the  interior  of  the  continent 
of  Africa.  Ask  them  to  find  the  prophecy  of  Zepha- 
niah,  and  see  what  work  they  will  make  of  their 
search  !  They  know  the  Gospels  tolerably  well,  but 
they  do  not  care  very  much  for  the  Epistles  ;  they 
may  have  read  many  of  the  Psalms  again  and  again, 
but  they  have  little  acquaintance  v/ith,  or  relish  for,  the 
historical  or  prophetical  books  of  the  Old  Testament. 


EXPOSITORY  PREACHINC7, 


171 


When,  some  eight  or  nine  years  ago,  Mr.  John  Bright, 
with  that  happy  talent  for  giving  appropriate  names 
by  which  he  is  distinguished,  spoke  of  Mr.  Robert 
Lowe  and  his  friends,  who  rebelled  against  the  Re- 
form Bill  of  the  liberal  leader,  as  having  gone  into  a 
cave  of  Adullam,  two  country  members  of  the  British 
House  of  Commons  were  overheard  conversing  thus, 
as  they  were  leaving  the  Chamber  of  Parliament :  "  I 
say,  where  did  Bright  get  that  illustration  of  his  to- 
night about  the  cave  ?  "  "  Oh,"  was  the  reply,  ''  I  see 
what  you're  up  to  ;  do  you  suppose  I  haven't  read 
the  'Arabian  Nights'?"  And  yet  these  men  were 
tolerably  fair  senators,  according  as  senators  go.  I 
am  persuaded  that  most  of  us  overrate  the  Biblical 
knowledge  of  our  hearers,  and  that  it  would  be  of  im- 
mense consequence  to  them,  as  well  as  to  ourselves, 
if  we  should  give  ourselves  to  the  consecutive  exposi- 
tion of  the  Scriptures.  Even  if  the  Bible  were  noth- 
ing more  than  a  valuable  human  production,  its  ear- 
nest study  would  tend  to  develop  mental  vigor  and 
moral  strength.  But  when  we  take  its  divine  inspira- 
tion and  beneficent  purpose  into  consideration,  it 
becomes  infinitely  more  important  that  we  should 
concentrate  our  attention  more  thoroughly  upon  it. 
Men  in  the  parlor,  in  the  closet,  and  in  the  counting- 
room,  are  overlaying  the  Word  of  God  beneath  the 
mountain  of  new  books  that  are  forever  issuing  from 
the  press  ;  therefore,  in  the  pulpit,  we  ministers  should 
more  and  more  exalt  it,  and  seek  to  increase  at  once 
the  acquaintance  of  our  hearers  with  it,  and  their 
reverence  for  it.     Truth  is-  the  nutriment  of  the  souJ^ 


172 


THE  MINISTRY  OF    THE    WORD. 


and  Bible-truth  is  the  stamina  of  the  spiritual  life.  It 
gives  strength  and  stability  to  Christian  character,  and 
he  who  is  familiar  with  it  is  not  easily  moved  from 
the  path  of  duty,  or  lightly  ''  tossed"  by  every  wind 
of  doctrine.  The  great  defection  of  the  Ritualistic 
party  in  the  Church  of  England  was  preceded  by  a 
depreciation  of  the  pulpit.  The  preacher  forgot  that 
his  mission  was  to  instruct,  and  so  substituted  a  few 
minutes  of  vapid  sentiment  for  an  earnest  effort  to 
expound  the  Scriptures.  Biblical  intelligence  is  ab- 
solutely essential  to  doctrinal  steadfastness  and  Chris- 
tian stability.  It  is  as  true  now  as  when  the  Psalmist 
wrote,  that  he  who  medidates  in  God's  law  day  and 
night,  shall  be  '^  like  a  tree  planted  by  the  rivers  of 
water  that  bringeth  forth  his  fruit  in  his  season  ;  his 
leaf  also  shall  not  wither,  and  whatsoever  he  doeth 
shall  prosper."* 

As  a  final  advantage  of  this  method,  I  men- 
tion the  fact,  that  in  the  process  of  preparing  his 
expository  discourses,  the  preacher  zvill  acqicire  a 
great  store  of  materials  which  he  can  use  for  other 
purposes,  and,  in  particular,  will  have  constantly 
suggested  to  him  fresh  subjects  for  topical  sermons. 
Max  Miiller  has  entitled  his  essays,  "  Chips  from  a 
German  Workshop,"  indicating  that  the  materials  of 
which  they  are  composed  were  struck  off  in  the  elab- 
oration by  him  of  his  more  systematic  works  ;  and 
the  readers  of  the  "  Greyson  Letters"  are  conscious 
that  they  consist  of  the  fragments  that  remained  after 


Psalm  i. 


EXPOSITORY  PREACHING. 


173 


the  composition  by  its  author  of  "  The  Eclipse  of 
Faith."  Now,  much  in  the  same  way  the  Biblical 
expositor  is  obliged,  week  after  week,  to  put  aside  a 
great  many  valuable  and  suggestive  thoughts  for 
which  he  can  find  no  appropriate  place  in  his  regular 
lectures,  but  which  he  can  use  either  in  the  illustra- 
tion of  other  discourses  or  in  the  construction  of 
topical  sermons.  "  Reading,"  as  Lord  Bacon  says,' 
"  maketh  a  full  man  ;"  and  the  continuous  study  of 
the  holy  Scriptures,  and  of  the  works  of  others  on 
them,  cannot  but  fill  the  mind  with  ample  stores  from 
which  the  minister  will  be  always  drawing  with  ad- 
vantage both  to  himself  and  to  his  hearers. 

In  the  preparation  of  the  ordinary  sermon,  he  is 
working  out  of  a  treasury  which  he  has  already  ac- 
quired ;  in  the  study  of  his  expositions,  he  is  con- 
stantly laying  up  new  stores.  Every  week  he  gathers 
far  more  than  he  can  give  in  any  one  discourse ;  but 
that  which  he  is  compelled,  for  the  time,  to  reject, 
remains  with  him  as  a  constant  possession,  and  in  due 
season  is  brought  forth  to  enrich  the  minds  of  his 
people  and  influence  their  lives. 

In  this  way,  too,  he  will  be  saved  from  that  most 
horrible  of  all  drudgeries,  the  ^'  hunting  for  a  text  ;" 
for  he  will  have  always  at  hand  a  host  of  subjects 
which  have  been  suggested  to  him,  and  when  he 
chooses  one,  he  will  take  it,  not  from  a  sense  of  con- 
straint because  he  must  preach  upon  something,  but 
with  a  feeling  of  satisfaction,  because  he  has  some- 
thing which  he  must  preach  upon.  For  many  years, 
in  my  own  ministry,  I  have  never  known  a  time  when 


174  '^^^^^   MINISTRY  OF   THE    WORD. 

I  had  not  in  my  mind  a  large  number  of  subjects, 
each  of  which  was,  as  it  were,  eager  to  receive  my 
first  attention,  but  which  I  was  compelled  to  detain, 
that  it  might  wait  its  turn ;  and  so  the  question  has 
been,  not  What  can  I  get  to  preach  on  ?  but  rather 
Which  one  of  many  topics  has  the  most  pressing 
claims  and  the  most  immediate  interest  ?  Now,  I 
trace  the  existence  of  this  state  of  things  to  my  con- 
stant habit  of  expository  preaching  on  at  least  one 
part  of  every  Lord's  day. 

But  an  example  will  be  to  students  and  ministers 
worth  far  more  than  any  mere  general  statement  here, 
so  perhaps  I  may  be  allowed  to  give  one  chapter  from 
my  recent  experience.  It  is  my  duty  to  prepare 
notes  to  the  **  International  Lessons"  for  one  of  our 
religious  papers,  and  in  the  course  for  the  three  open- 
ing months  of  last  year,  I  had  occasion  to  go  into  the 
histories  of  Joshua  and  the  Judges.  These  books  are 
not  generally  accounted  the  most  suggestive  for 
homiletic  purposes.  Yet,  after  having  done  what  I 
could  to  help  the  Sunday-school  teachers,  there  re- 
mained on  my  own  hands  the  following  sheaf  of  valu- 
able texts,  some  of  which  I  have  already  preached  on, 
and  others  are  waiting  only  for  a  favorable  opportu- 
nity. From  the  lesson  on  the  crossing  of  the  Jordan 
I  got  the  phrase,  ''  Ye  have  not  passed  this  way  here- 
tofore," suggesting  the  topic  how  to  meet  unknown 
difficulties ;  from  that  on  the  sin  of  Achan  I  got  the 
evil  influence  of  one  man's  sin  on  others,  founded  on 
the  words,  ''  That  man  perished  not  alone  in  his  ini- 
quity "  ;  from  that  on  the  division  of  the  land  I  got 


EXPOSITORY  PREACHING. 


175 


the  expostulation,  "  How  long  are  ye  slack  to  go  to 
possess  the  land  which  the  Lord  God  of  your  fathers 
hath  given  you?"  which  may  be  used  either  as  en- 
forcing efforts  after  the  attainment  of  personal  holi- 
ness or  as  stirring  up  to  home  missionary  zeal ;  from 
that  on  the  Promise  broken  I  got  the  words,  "  They 
followed  other  gods  of  the  gods  of  the  people  that 
were  round  about  them,"  which  may  be  employed  as 
the  starting-point  of  a  discourse  on  conformity  to  the 
prevailing  fashion  of  the  world  ;  from  the  story  of 
Gideon  I  got  the  phrase,  "  Faint,  yet  pursuing ;"  and 
from  the  history  of  Samson  I  obtained  the  clause, 
"  Samson  wist  not  that  the  Lord  had  departed  from 
him,"  which,  taken  in  connection  with  the  parallel 
statement  regarding  Moses,  that  ^'^  he  wist  not  that 
the  skin  of  his  face  did  shine,"  suggested  as  a  subject 
'■'■  the  element  of  unconsciousness  in  character."  Other 
expositors  I  know  would  have  been  drawn  to  other 
topics ;  but  no  man  whose  business  it  is  to  preach, 
could  go  over  these  chapters  earnestly  and  prayer- 
fully without  having  some  fruitful  themes  suggested 
to  him  ;  and  thus,  far  from  being  inconsistent  with  top- 
ical preaching,  the  habit  of  exposition  will  give  new  in- 
terest to  that  also,  and  will  enable  the  minister  to 
present  old  truths  with  constant  freshness  and  variety. 
Hence,  apart  from  the  advantages  which  the  people 
derive  from  it,  I  could  not  afford  to  give  up  my  habit 
of  "  lecturing,"  as  we  Scotchmen  call  it,  because  of  its 
influence  on  my  own  mind  and  heart. 

But,  in  reply  to  all  my  arguments,  it  will  be  said, 


1^6  THE  MINISTRY  OF  THE   WORD. 

"  Expository  preaching  is  not  popular.  The  people 
do  not  like  it,  and  they  will  not  stand  it."  Now,  in 
answer  to  this,  I  have  to  say  that  the  minister  has  to 
consult  the  benefit  of  his  hearers  as  well  as  their 
tastes ;  and  where  the  two  conflict,  he  has  to  prefer 
that  which  will  promote  the  former  rather  than  that 
which  will  please  the  latter.  If  he  is  fully  persuaded 
that  they  need  such  instruction  as  Biblical  exposition 
regularly  prosecuted  can  alone  impart,  then  he  ought 
to  give  himself  to  it,  even  at  the  risk  of  creating  some 
little  dissatisfaction  at  first ;  for  he  may  rely  upon  it, 
that  if  he  do  his  work  faithfully  and  well,  they  will 
grow  interested  in  spite  of  themselves,  and  will  come 
at  length  to  enjoy  it.  Of  course,  if  he  is  ambitious 
of  acquiring  a  reputation  for  ''great  sermons"  and 
wishes  to  hear  many  complimentary  expressions  about 
the  beauty  and  brilliancy  of  his  ""  effort,"  then  he 
will  leave  off  exposition,  and  indeed,  in  that  case,  he 
had  better  leave  off  preaching  altogether,  for  the  pul- 
pit is  not  the  place  for  such  displays.  But  if  he  wish 
to  honor  God's  truth,  and  if  his  desire  be  to  hear  his 
people  tell  him  that  they  have  never  before  so  thor- 
oughly understood  some  portion  of  Scripture,  or  that 
his  explanation  of  a  passage  has  taken  a  stumbling- 
block  out  of  their  way  or  put  a  staff  of  strength  into 
their  hands,  he  will  go  on  with  his  expository  work, 
content ;  oh,  much  more  than  content !  rejoicing  in 
the  fact  that  he  has  been  in  any  smallest  degree  the 
instrument  of  building  up  the  Christian  character  of 
the  people  of  his  charge. 

But  why  is  this  sort  of  preaching  not  popular  ?     Is 


EXPOSITOR  V  PRE  A  CHING.  i  jj 

it  not  because  those  who  have  attempted  it  have 
done  so  too  often  without  any  adequate  idea  of  its 
importance,  and  have  gone  on  with  it  in  the  most 
slovenly  and  perfunctory  fashion  ?  They  have  been 
content  to  "say  away"  on  the  passage,  or,  to  use  an 
expressive  Scotch  word,  they  have  "  perlikewed " 
awhile,  going  about  it  and  about  it,  until  everybody 
hearing  them  has  been  longing  for  the  amen.  They 
have  taken  to  exposition  because  they  thought  it  was 
an  easier  thing  to  do  than  to  write  sermons,  and  they 
have  simply  diluted  the  sayings  of  the  sacred  writer 
by  the  watery  additions  of  their  extempore,  not  to 
say  ex-trumpery,  utterances.  They  have  had  recourse 
to  it  with  the  feelings  of  him  who  said,  "  I  like  to 
take  a  whole  chapter  for  a  text,  because  when  I  am 
persecuted  in  one  verse,  I  can  flee  to  another." 

Now  of  course  that  is  fatal.  Such  preaching  does  not 
deserve  to  be  popular,  and  it  is  a  proof  of  the  good 
sense  of  our  people  that  it  is  not  popular.  Let  no 
man  who  wishes  to  succeed  in  exposition  imagine 
that  he  can  do  so  without  great  labor.  No  mere  cur- 
sory perusal  of  the  passage  before  he  goes  to  the  pul- 
pit will  suffice.  No  hasty  study  of  it  will  be  enough. 
He  needs  to  enter  into  the  spirit  of  the  writer,  to  re- 
call the  times  and  circumstances  in  which  he  wrote, 
and  to  live  and  move  and  have  his  being  for  the  week  . 
in  the  argument  or  narrative,  the  prophecy  or  parable, 
the  psalm  or  supplication,  which  he  is  considering.  He 
must  follow  the  old  canon  of  Bengel :  "Apply  thy 
whole  self  to  the  text,  and  apply  the  whole  text  to 
thyself."  Thus  will  he  discover  the  "  hidden  treas- 
8* 


1^8  THE  MINISTRY  OF  THE   WORD. 

ures"  in  the  field  of  sacred  Scripture,  and  when  he 
speaks  of  them  to  his  hearers,  his  words  will  have  in 
them  that  unmistakable  ring — that  "  accent  of  con- 
viction," as  Mullois  calls  it — which  will  make  every  one 
feel  that  he  is  in  living  earnest. 

One  thing,  however,  he  must  guard  against.  He 
must  not  turn  the  pulpit  into  the  chair  of  the  exe- 
getical  professor,  and  spend  a  long  time  in  hunting 
down  some  poor  Greek  particle,  or  digging  up  some 
obscure  Hebrew  root.  Processes  are  for  the  study; 
results  are  for  the  pulpit.  Our  people  do  not  want 
to  know  what  every  German,  English,  or  American 
commentator  has  thought.  When  one  asks  what  time 
it  is,  it  would  be  a  mockery  of  his  request  if  you 
should  begin  to  tell  him  all  the  details  of  the  mechan- 
ism of  a  watch,  or  if  you  should  go  into  an  exhaustive 
dissertation  on  the  relative  merits  of  Trinity  church 
clock,  or  Bennet's,  or  the  clock  at  the  railway  depot. 
You  look  at  your  own  watch  and  tell  him  what  its 
fingers  point  to,  and  that  is  all. 

So  let  it  be  here.  Do  not  make  your  expository 
lecture  a  place  of  deposit  for  barrowfuls  of  other  men's 
opinions,  gathered  from  all  quarters,  but  tell  your 
hearers  what  you  have  concluded  for  yourselves,  with 
the  grounds  on  which  your  opinion  rests,  and  then  pass 
on  and  press  the  practical  application  of  the  principle 
which  you  have  found  in  the  passage  to  the  consciences 
of  your  people  and  the  circumstances  of  your  times. 

That  this  kind  of  preaching  will  be  both  profitable 
and  popular  has  been  clearly  proved,  both  from  the 


EXPOSITOR  V  PRE  A  CHING.  j  ^q 

past  history  of  the  pulpif^  and  from  the  success  of 
many  living  preachers.  Let  the  young  minister, 
therefore,  take  courage  and  labor  on  at  it.  Above 
all,  let  him  remember  here,  as  in  all  other  things, 
his  dependence  on  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  prayerfully 
seeking  that  in  the  closet,  while  he  diligently  does  his 
best  in  the  study  let  him  go  forward  in  the  con- 
fidence that  he  will  succeed,  for  God  hath  said,  "  Them 
that  honor  me,  I  will  honor." 

Not  all  at  once  will  the  success  come.  But  it  will 
come  as  the  result  of  these  three  things :  prayer,  per- 
severance, and  patience.  Keep  on,  therefore,  with 
resolute  courage,  for  "  all  things  are  possible  to  him 
that  believeth." 


*  For  illustrations,  F  might  point  to  Dr.  John  Dick's  Lectures 
on  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  ;  Dr.  John  Brown's  volumes  on  the 
Discourses  and  Sayings  of  the  Lord  ;  the  volumes  by  Dr.  Hanna 
on  The  Life  of  Christ ;  those  of  Trench  and  Arnot  on  the  Para- 
bles ;  the  various  works  of  Dr.  Cox,  now  editor  of  the  Expositor  ; 
and  for  separate  passages,  "An  Expositor's  Note-Book,"  by  the 
author  last  named.  The  volume  of  Robertson  on  the  Corin- 
thians and  those  of  Vaughan  on  the  Philippians  and  the  book  of 
Revelation  are  exceedingly  valuable,  while  in  another  style 
Peddie's  Jonah  and  Raleigh's  Jonah  are  admirable. 


LECTURE   VIII. 

ON  THE   USE   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS   IN  PREACHING. 


LECTURE    VIII. 

ON  THE  USE  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS  IN  PREACHING. 

TN  its  widest  sense,  illustration  includes  everything 
-*-  which  is  employed  for  the  purpose  of  making  an 
argument  intelligible,  attractive,  or  convincing.  In 
recent  times,  however,  it  has  been  virtually  restricted 
to  such  rhetorical  figures  as  the  metaphor,  the  simile, 
the  allegory,  and  the  parable.  When,  therefore,  I 
speak  of  the  use  of  illustrations  in  preaching,  it  will 
be  understood  that  I  employ  the  term  in  its  narrower 
and  more  modern  application  as  equivalent  to  simili- 
tudes. 

Now,  in  the  outset,  it  is  important  to  say  that  illus- 
trations ought  not  to  form  the  staple  of  a  sermon. 
There  must  be  something  to  be  illustrated.  In  former 
days,  preachers  were  exceedingly  sparing  in  their  use 
of  comparisons ;  but  under  the  influence  of  the  ex- 
ample of  such  men  as  Guthrie,  Beecher,  and  others,  a 
great  reaction  has  set  in,  and  the  danger  now  is  that 
discourses  shall  consist  of  illustrations,  and  nothing 
else.  But  the  beauty  of  a  simile  lies  in  its  pertinence 
to  the  point  which  you  design  to  brighten  by  its  light. 
Without  that,  it  has  no  business  in  your  discourse. 
When  illustrations  will  help  to  make  your  argument 
more  simple,  they  are  to  be  used  with  discretion  ;  but 

(183) 


1 84  THE  MINISTRY  OF   THE    WORD. 

when  they  are  employed  purely  for  the  sake  of  the 
stories  of  which  they  consist,  and  to  hide  the  poverty 
of  the  thought,  they  are  a  snare  to  the  preacher  and 
an  offence  to  the  hearer. 

Much  of  the  Sunday-school  oratory  of  these  days 
is  vitiated  by  this  false  rhetoric,  and  there  are  many 
among  us  who  would  agree  with  the  German  lady 
from  whose  diary  Mr.  Spurgeon  has  quoted  the  fol- 
lowing sentences :  ''  There  is  a  mission  station  here, 
and  young  men  come  down  to  preach  to  us.  I  do 
not  wish  to  find  fault  with  these  young  gentlemen, 
but  they  tell  us  a  great  many  very  pretty  little  stories, 
and  I  do  not  think  there  is  much  else  in  what  they 
say.  Also,  I  have  heard  some  of  their  little  stories 
before  ;  therefore,  they  do  not  so  much  interest  me 
as  they  would  do  if  they  would  tell  us  some  good 
doctrine  out  of  the  Scriptures."  *  Be  sure  that  you 
have  the  good  doctrine  in  full  prominence,  then  let 
the  light  of  your  illustrations  fall  on  that  and  you 
will  be  safe.  Repeatedly,  however,  have  I  heard  in- 
cidents introduced  into  discourses  which,  though 
interesting  enough  in  themselves,  had  no  bearing, 
either  immediate  or  remote,  on  the  subject  which  the 
preacher  was  professing  to  discuss.  They  simply 
filled  up  time,  and  by  diverting  the  attention  from 
the  topic  which  ought  to  have  been  uppermost,  they 
did  more  harm  than  good.  Remember,  therefore, 
that  as  it  is  essential  to  a  good  style  that  one  should 


*  "  Lectures  to  my  Students,"  by  C.  H.  Spurgeon.     English 
Edition,  p.  147. 


USE   OF  ILLUSTRATIONS  IN  PREACHING. 


185 


have  something  to  say,  and  should  say  that  well ;  so 
it  is  no  less  essential  to  the  proper  use  of  illustration 
that  one  should  have  something  to  illustrate,  and 
should  use  his  simile  in  such  a  manner  as  to  illustrate 
that  well.  We  may  paint  a  picture,  but  we  must 
never  do  that  for  the  sake  of  the  picture.  That  must 
always  be  subordinated  to  the  truth  which  the  analogy 
is  meant  to  illuminate. 

This  principle  was  once  emphasized  to  me  in  a 
very  suggestive  way.  Spending  a  few  days,  some 
years  ago,  in  the  quiet  little  English  town  of  Lutter- 
worth, where  I  was  refreshing  my  spirit  with  the 
memories  of  Wycliffe,  I  went  into  the  shop  of  a 
cabinet-maker,  where  I  saw  a  magnificent  book-case 
which  had  just  been  finished  for  one  of  the  gentry  of 
the  neighborhood.  I  was  at  once  attracted  by  it,  and 
began  to  examine  it  minutely.  Then  I  ventured 
rashly  to  criticize  it,  and  even  suggested  something 
which  I  thought  would  be  an  improvement.  But  the 
intelligent  workman  said, "  I  could  not  do  that,  sir,  for 
it  would  be  contrary  to  one  great  rule  in  art."  **  What 
rule?"  I  asked.  ''This  rule,"  replied  he,  "  that  we 
must  never  construct  ornament,  but  only  ornament 
construction."  It  was  quaintly  spoken,  but  it  was  to 
me  a  word  in  season.  I  saw  in  a  moment  that  this 
principle  held  as  truly  in  the  architecture  of  a  sermon 
as  in  that  of  a  cathedral — in  the  construction  of  a 
discourse  as  in  that  of  a  book-case  ;  and  often  since, 
when  I  have  caught  myself  making  ornament  for  its 
own  sake,  I  have  destroyed  what  I  had  written,  and 
I  have  done  so  simply  from  the  recollection  of  that 


1 86  THE  MINISTRY  OF   THE    WORD. 

artisan's  reproof.  There  is  a  whole  "  philosophy  of 
rltetoric "  in  his  words.  Whenever,  therefore,  you 
are  tempted  to  let  illustration  become  the  principal 
thing,  or  to  forget  the  great  object  of  your  discourse, 
in  your  effort  to  work  in  the  drapery  of  some  beauti- 
ful image,  let  this  good  rule  come  back  upon  you 
with  its  wholesome  counsel.  See  that  you  have  con- 
struction to  ornament  before  you  allow  ornament  to 
make  its  appearance. 

But,  presuming  that  you  have  in  your  discourse  a 
body  of  substantial  thought,  or  that  it  consists  mainly 
of  a  closely-linked  argumentative  chain,  what  is  the 
use  of  illustration? 

To  this  question  several  answers,  all  equally  true 
and  equally  important,  may  be  given. 

In  the  first  place,  it  helps  to  make  your  thought 
clear.  This,  indeed,  must  be  suggested  by  the  v^ry 
etymology  of  the  term.  An  illustration  must  mean 
that  which  throws  light  in  upon  something  else.  It 
is  to  a  thought,  or  an  assertion,  or  an  argument,  what 
a  window  is  to  a  room,  letting  the  brilliancy  of  the 
sunlight  in  upon  it,  and  making  every  portion  of  it 
luminous.  It  uses  that  which  is  known  and  acknowl- 
edged to  be  true  in  such  a  way  as  to  lead  the  hearer's 
mind  to  the  acceptance  of  something  else  of  which 
he  has  heretofore  been  in  doubt.  It  employs  the 
imagination  for  the  assistance  of  the  judgment.  Nay, 
frequently  it  brings  the  material  to  the  aid  of  the 
spiritual,  and  by  the  clear  analysis  of  the  visible  it 
helps  the  soul  to  see  that  which  is  invisible.  For  ex- 
ample, if  one  should  have  a  difficulty  in  assenting  to 


USE  OF  ILL  US  LRA  TIONS  IN  PRE  A  CHING.       1 8  / 

the  words  of  James,  "  For  whosoever  shall  keep  the 
whole  law,  and  yet  offend  in  one  point,  he  is  guilty 
of  all ;  "  *  we  might  help  him  to  its  acceptance  by  a 
simple  statement  and  illustration,  thus  :  The  principle 
that  we  are  bound  to  obey  God,  by  whom  it  was  en- 
joined, is  that  which  underlies  the  law  as  a  whole ; 
hence,  he  who  violates  one  precept  of  it  does  thereby 
abjure  that  authority  by  which  they  are  all  alike  en- 
forced. Thus  the  commandments  of  the  law  are  like 
a  necklace  of  pearls  from  which  one  cannot  be  torn 
away  without  breaking  the  string  on  which  all  the 
others  are  threaded  with  it,  and  letting  them  fall 
ignominiously  to  the  ground.  In  this  way  material 
things  are  used  as  a  diagram  for  the  demonstration 
of  spiritual,  and  they  who  apprehend  the  point  of  the 
analogy  have  no  longer  any  hesitation  about  the 
statement. 

But  there  is  more  than  an  illuminating  power  in  a 
good  illustration.  It  has  a  force  of  proof  as  well. 
As  one  has  very  well  put  it,  "  Wherever  similes  rest 
on  the  unity  between  God's  world  and  man's  nature, 
they  are  arguments  as  well  as  illustrations."  f  This 
was  clearly  seen  and  readily  acknowledged,  even  by 
such  a  philosopher  as  Sir  William  Hamilton,  who 
vindicated  his  liking  for  the  illustrative  preaching  of 
Dr.  Guthrie  in  these  words,  ''  He  has  the  best  of  all 
logic ;  there  is  but  one  step  between  his  premise  and 


*  James  ii.  lo. 

t  Dr.  John  Ker's  Reminiscences  of  Dr.  Thomas  Guthrie 
Autobiography  and  Memoir  of  Guthrie.     Vol.  II.  p.  359. 


1 88  THE  MINISTRY  OF   THE    WORD. 

his  conclusion."  ^  Even  our  ordinary  speech  may  in- 
struct us  here,  for  there  is  an  intimate  connection 
between  the  ^'  Hke  "  and  the  ^'  Hkely."  The  simiHtude 
is  in  and  of  itself  a  ground  of  probability ;  and  in 
modern  science  many  most  important  discoveries 
have  been  suggested  by  analogy.  The  poetic  insight 
of  the  physical  philosopher  leads  him  to  the  percep- 
tion of  hidden  analogies  through  which  he  rises  to 
the  apprehension  of  new  truth.  And  the  same  genius 
in  the  preacher  leads  him  to  see  the  correspondencies 
which  God  has  made  between  the  material  and  the 
spiritual  departments  of  His  universe,  and  to  use  these 
for  the  attainment  of  the  great  ends  of  his  calling. 
The  world  of  nature  came  from  the  hand  of  Him  who 
made  the  soul  of  man  ;  and  the  administration  of 
Providence  is  carried  on  by  Him  who  gave  to  us  the 
revelation  of  His  will  through  the  sacred  Scriptures. 
We  may  expect,  therefore,  to  find  a  principle  of  unity 
running  through  them  all.  Milton  was  giving  utter- 
ance to  a  correct  philosophy,  as  well  as  true  poetry, 
when  he  said, 

"  What  if  earth 
Be  but  the  shadow  of  heaven,  and  things  therein 
Each  to  the  other  Hke,  more  than  on  earth  is  thought." 

This  is  the  principle  that  gives  the  Saviour's  parables 
all  their  power.  They  are  something  more  than 
felicitous  illustrations.  They  are  outward  symbols 
of  inward  realities,  and  the  laws  that  obtain  in  the 


*  Dr.  McCosh's  Reminiscences  of  Guthrie.      Autobiography 
ut  sup.  Vol.  I.,  p.  322. 


USE  OF  ILL  US  TEA  TIONS  IN  PRE  A  CHING.       \  89 

one  were  felt  by  his  hearers  to  be  operative  in  the 
other.  Whether  He  drew  His  analogies  from  human 
life  or  from  external  nature,  He  so  employed  them  as 
to  make  them  effective  for  demonstration  as  well  as 
for  elucidation.  They  proved  as  well  as  illumined 
the  truth.  As  Trench  has  said,  ''  Their  power  lay  in 
the  harmony  unconsciously  felt  by  all  men,  and  which 
all  deeper  minds  have  delighted  to  trace,  between  the 
natural  and  spiritual  worlds,  so  that  analogies  from 
the  first  are  felt  to  be  something  more  than  illustra- 
tions, happily,  but  yet  arbitrarily,  chosen.  They  are 
arguments,  and  may  be  alleged  as  witnesses :  the 
world  of  nature  being  throughout  a  witness  for  the 
world  of  spirit  proceeding  from  the  same  hand,  grow- 
ing out  of  the  same  root,  and  being  constituted  for 
that  very  end."  * 

We  may  not  claim  the  same  force  of  argument  for 
every  analogy  which  we  discover ;  but  in  so  far  as  the 
analogy  is  true,  the  illustration  which  we  employ  has 
such  an  influence,  and  even  when  it  may  fall  short  of 
establishing  a  probability  in  favor  of  that  which  we 
are  seeking  to  prove,  it  is  invaluable,  as  Bishop  Butler 
has  clearly  shown,  in  answering  objections.  Fre- 
quently a  striking  analogy  will  do  more  to  convince 
the  wavering,  and  to  establish  the  weak  in  faith,  than 
a  whole  volume   of  philosophic    argument ;    and   so 


* "  Notes  on  the  Parables  of  our  Lord."  By  Archbishop 
Trench,  pp.  12,  13.  The  whole  section  from  which  these 
sentences  are  taken  is  pre-eminently  wjrthy  of  the  young  preach- 
er's study. 


IQO  THE  MINISTRY  OF  THE   WORD. 

even  as  a  means  of  persuasion,  the  study  of  the  art 
of  illustration  is  as  important  as  is  that  of  logic. 

But,  leaving  the  rationale  of  illustration,  I  pass  on 
to  observe  that  the  employment  of  similitudes  is  of 
great  service  in  awakening  and  sustaining  the  interest 
of  an  audience.  Here,  again,  etymology  vindicates 
our  position.  Just  as  the  '*  like  "  leads  to  the  ''  likely," 
so  it  is  that  for  which  we  have  a  '*  liking."  Every  one 
is  delighted  with  a  vivid  and  effective  illustration.  It 
is  to  a  sermon  what  the  picture  is  to  the  school-book 
of  the  little  child.  The  lesson  is  made  agreeable  by 
means  of  the  drawing.  The  thing  may  be  over-done, 
indeed,  and  the  art  may  be  something  of  the  clumsi- 
est, but  still  the  little  student  will  read  to  find  out 
what  the  picture  means.  And  in  the  same  way  the 
hearer  will  listen  to  learn  what  you  are  going  to  make 
of  your  analogy.  While  you  are  dealing  with  the 
story,  he  is  all  attention,  and  it  will  be  your  own  fault 
if,  before  his  interest  flags,  you  have  not  insinuated 
your  lesson,  or  pointed  your  application.  Look  at 
the  parables  of  the  great  Teacher,  and  you  will  dis- 
cover how,  while  yet  in  the  absorption  of  their  atten- 
tion, His  auditors  had  left  the  gates  into  the  citadel 
of  ''  Mansoul "  unguarded,  He  entered  before  they 
were  aware,  and  made  His  application  in  such  a  way 
as  thrilled  them  through.  Often  He  made  them 
judge  themselves,  and,  sometimes,  when  they  had 
pronounced  sentence  on  the  character  and  conduct 
which  He  had  depicted.  He  turned  upon  them  as 
Nathan  did  on  David,  saying  to  each  of  them,  "  Thou 
art  the  man." 


USE  OF  ILLUSTRA  TIONS  IN  PREACHING. 


191 


This  is  an  incidental  advantage  from  the  use  of  il- 
lustration which  is  often  of  great  importance.  Many 
of  our  hearers  come  to  the  place  of  assembly  preju- 
diced against  the  truth,  and  by  the  wise  employment 
of  some  beautiful  or  touching  analogy,  we  may  so  dis- 
arm them  for  the  moment,  that  before  they  have  time 
to  resume  their  antagonism,  we  may,  by  the  help  of 
God's  Spirit,  secure  an  entrance  for  the  truth  into 
their  minds.  They  become  interested  in  spite  of 
themselves ;  and  when  their  attitude  is  most  intense, 
then  is  our  time  to  strike.  If  Nathan  had  gone  to 
David  with  a  direct  denunciation  of  his  iniquity,  the 
monarch  might  have  been  tempted  to  drive  him  from 
his  presence.  But  the  parable  fascinated  him,  and 
then  the  prophet  could  speak  to  him  as  strongly  as 
he  pleased. 

Moreover,  the  impressions  which  are  thus  produced 
are  never  forgotten.  You  may  find  difficulty  in  re- 
calling an  intricate  argument ;  but  you  will  be  sure  to 
remember  that  which  was  fastened  to  an  illustration. 
Hence,  if  you  wish  your  discourses  to  be  memorable, 
you  will  seek  to  have  them  aptly  illustrated.  When 
Guthrie  began  his  ministry  at  Arbirlot,  he  instituted 
a  Bible-class,  which  met  every  Lord's  day  immediately 
after  the  service,  and  one  part  of  its  exercises  was  the 
going  over,  catechetically,  of  the  discourse  which  he 
had  just  delivered.  At  first  he  was  surprised  to  find 
that  his  pupils  remembered  so  little.  But,  perceiving 
that  they  always  easily  recalled  an  illustration,  and 
the  truth  which  it  was  meant  to  illuminate,  he  was 
led  to  give  special  attention  to  that   source  of  pulpit 


ig2  THE  MINISTRY  OF  THE   WORD. 

efficiency,  and  so  he  began  that  course  which  culmi- 
nated in  his  after  greatness.  Now,  we  may  profit 
much  by  this  experience.  We  may  not  all  become 
Guthries,  indeed.  It  is  not  desirable,  either,  that  we 
should.  But  we  shall  each  become  more  admirably 
furnished  for  the  glorious  work  to  which  we  have  con- 
secrated ourselves ;  and  our  words  will  be  both 
winged  and  weighted ;  flying  far,  yet  fixing  them- 
selves permanently  where  they  fall.  But  we  need  not 
deal  in  amplification  here ;  the  whole  truth  upon  this 
matter  has  been  condensed  for  us  by  one  who  was 
himself  a  master  in  the  art,  into  these  sentences, 
which  at  once  explain  and  exemplify  its  advantages : 
"  The  chief  and  common  object  of  a  parable  is  by  the 
story  to  win  attention  and  maintain  it ;  to  give  plain- 
ness and  point,  and,  therefore,  power  to  the  truth. 
By  awakening  and  gratifying  the  imagination,  the 
truth  finds  its  way  more  readily  to  the  heart  and 
makes  a  deeper  impression  on  the  memory.  The 
story,  like  a  float,  keeps  it  from  sinking ;  like  a  nail, 
fastens  it  in  the  mind  ;  like  the  feathers  of  an  arrow 
makes  it  strike,  and  like  the  barb  makes  it  stick."  * 

But,  you  ask,  how  are  we  to  get  illustrations  ?  And 
in  answer  to  that  inquiry,  I  begin  by  saying  that  if 
I  may  speak  from  my  own  experience,  there  is  no 
faculty  which  is  more  susceptible  of  development  by 
culture  than  that  of  discovering  analogies.     When  I 


*  "  The  Parables,  Read  in  the  Light  of  the  Present  Day."     By 
Thomas  Guthrie,  D.D..  p.  9. 


USE  OF  ILL  USTRA  TIONS  IN  PRE  A  CHING.       i  Q3 

commenced  my  ministry,  it  was  a  rare  thing  with  me 
to  use  an  illustration.  My  style  then  was  particularly 
argumentative,  and  my  aim  was  to  convince  and 
satisfy  the  understanding,  and  then  to  make  my  ap- 
peal warmly  to  the  heart.  But  shortly  after  my  re- 
moval from  my  Scotch  parsonage  to  Liverpool,  Guth- 
rie's Gospel  in  Ezekiel  was  published,  and  this  was 
followed  a  few  months  later  by  Mr.  Beecher's  Life 
Thoughts.  These  two  books  opened  my  eyes  to  see 
what  was  lying  all  around  me.  Under  the  inspiration 
which  they  communicated  to  me,  I  began  to  look  for 
spiritual  analogies  in  everything.  The  books  I  read  ; 
the  places  I  visited  ;  the  incidents  that  passed  under 
my  observation  ;  the  discoveries  of  science  with  which 
I  became  acquainted — all  were  scanned  by  me  for  the 
purpose  of  finding  in  them,  if  possible,  something 
that  might  be  used  in  pulpit  illustration.  And  so  it 
came  that  when  I  sat  down  to  my  desk,  appropriate 
analogies  would  rise  to  my  pen,  and  the  difficulty  was 
not  how  to  get  illustrations,  but  which  to  choose  out 
of  the  many  that  offered  themselves  for  my  purpose. 
It  might  have  been  easy  to  have  saved  myself  all  this 
trouble,  if  I  had  been  content  to  have  appropriated 
ready-made  the  analogies  employed  by  those  eminent 
preachers  to  whom  I  have  referred,  or  to  have  availed 
myself  of  those  helps  to  laziness  which  have  been 
published  in  the  shape  of  Cyclopaedias  of  Religious 
Anecdotes  and  Illustrations.  But  not  to  speak  of  the 
dishonesty  of  such  a  proceeding,  there  would  have 
been  nothing  in  all  that  to  educate  me  into  the  dis- 
covery of  similitudes  for  myself.  So  I  used  these 
9 


IQ4  THE  MINISTRY  OF   THE    WORD. 

books,  rather  as  suggesting  to  me  how  I  should  go  to 
work  for  myself,  than  as  store-houses  out  of  which  I 
might  help  myself  as  occasion  required. 

While,  therefore,  I  recommend  you  to  study  very 
closely  the  illustrations  of  other  men,  let  me  urge  you, 
also,  to  make  your  own  for  yourselves.  Even  if  no 
one  in  your  audience  should  know  that  your  analogy 
is  not  original,  there  will  be  in  your  own  soul,  while 
you  are  giving  it,  a  feeling  of  meanness  which  will 
prevent  you  from  using  it  effectively ;  so  that  when 
you  do  employ  the  illustration  of  another,  it  would 
be  well  always  to  acknowledge  it.  But  it  is  a  thousand 
times  better  for  you  to  make  your  own.  Look  for 
them.  I  might  paraphrase  here  the  inscription  on 
the  monument  of  Sir  Christopher  Wren,  "  Si  ilhistra- 
tiones  qiiceris  circumspicey  You  will  find  them  in 
the  talk  of  the  children  of  the  household  ;  and  some- 
times, also,  as  you  watch  the  school-boys  in  the  play- 
ground. You  will  find  them  on  the  street  and  in  the 
store  ;  on  the  ship  and  in  the  railway  car ;  in  the  field 
of  nature  and  on  the  page  of  literature ;  in  history, 
biography,  science,  art  ;  in  a  word,  everywhere. 

Some  one  has  said  that  ''  Learning  to  paint  is 
learning  to  see ;  "  so  I  would  say,  *^  Learning  to  illus- 
trate is  learning  to  see."  The  preacher  who  compels 
himself  for  a  time  to  look  at  everything  with  the 
question  in  his  mind,  ''  What  use  can  I  make  of  this 
in  commending  the  truth  of  God  to  my  fellow-men?" 
will  by  and  by  discover  that  he  has  been  prosecuting 
these  researches  unconsciously.  It  \\A\\  become  the 
habit   of  his   life  to  carry  them  on.     Every  journey 


USE  OF  ILLUSTRA  TIONS  IX  PREACIIIXG. 


195 


that  he  takes  he  will  bring  home  with  him  new 
treasures.  Every  visit  that  he  pays  to  the  work-shop 
of  the  mechanic,  the  studio  of  the  artist,  or  the  labora- 
tory of  the  man  of  science,  will  give  him  new  spoils. 
Nay,  after  the  faculty  has  been  fairly  cultivated,  it 
will  lay  hold  of  his  past  accumulations  and  make  them 
fertile  in  the  freshest  analogies.  The  stories  he  heard 
in  his  boyhood ;  the  scenes  and  circumstances  of  his 
youth  ;  the  characters  he  met  with  in  his  native  town, 
as  well  as  the  old  brown-backed  books  which  long 
ago  he  read  ere  yet  he  had  left  his  father's  house ;  all 
will  be  laid  under  tribute,  and  will  be  found  rich  in 
materials  for  this  valuable  purpose. 

As  the  poet,  under  Wordsworth's  tuition,  finds 
poetry  everywhere,  so  the  preacher,  under  the  in- 
spiration of  the  Lord  himself,  will  find  illustrations 
anywhere.  Dr.  John  Ker,  in  his  pleasant  reminis- 
cences of  Guthrie  at  his  Highland  home  in  Vacation- 
time,"^  tells  us  that  he  saw  in  the  landscape  of  Inch- 
grundle  the  originals  of  many  of  his  most  striking 
similes  ;  and  many  a  harvest  of  the  same  sort  has  Mr. 
Beecher  reaped  from  the  fields  of  his  Peekskill  farm. 

Nay,  He  whom  we  all  alike  call  Master  and  Lord, 
found  all  nature,  and  every  phasis  of  human  life,  sug- 
gestive of  spiritual  truths.  The  hen  with  her  brood 
under  her  wings  and  the  sparrow  chirping  on  the 
housetop ;  the  lily  in  its  snowy  loveliness  and  the 
mustard    tree    in    its   growth  from  a  tiny  seed ;  the 


*  "Guthrie's  Autobiography  and  Memoir,''  ut  sup.  :  Vol.  II., 
PP-  54^-360. 


196 


THE  MINISTRY  OF   THE    WORD. 


housewife  kneading  her  dough,  or  sweeping  her  room 
in  eager  search  after  the  piece  of  money  which  she 
had  lost ;  the  sower  going  forth  to  sow  ;  and  the 
vine-dresser  with  his  pruning-hook ;  all  were  intro- 
duced into  His  discourses  in  such  a  way  that  each 
became  thenceforth  associated  in  the  minds  of  His 
hearers  with  some  aspect  of  divine  truth.  And  this 
was  one  of  the  reasons  why,  with  a  Joseph  and  Nico- 
demus  among  His  disciples,  ''  the  common  people," 
also,  ''  heard  Him  gladly."  For  here,  in  their  liking 
for  the  illustrative,  ''  the  rich  and  the  poor  meet  to- 
gether." And  both  alike  will  be  drawn  to  the  sanctu- 
ary by  the  magnetism  of  its  simplicity. 

But  it  is  necessary  to  give  a  few  cautions  as  to  the 
use  of  illustrations.  And  here,  in  the  first  place,  let 
me  say,  that  you  should  not  attempt  to  illustrate 
that  which  is  already  perfectly  plain.  Do  not  hold 
up  a  lighted  taper  under  pretence  of  making  the  sun 
visible.  The  great  luminary  can  shine  for  himself; 
he  does  not  require  your  puny  rushlight  to  make  his 
glory  conspicuous.  Few  things  are  more  ridiculous 
than  to  hear  a  would-be  orator  laboriously  illustrating 
a  truth  which  is  almost  axiomatic.  When  you  have 
such  a  principle  to  lay  down,  state  it  with  emphatic 
clearness,  and  pass  on.  I  was  once  listening  to  a 
preacher  who  was  descanting  on  the  certainty  of 
death  after  this  fashion :  "  As  sure  as  to-morrow's  sun 
will  rise,  as  sure  as  the  tidal  wave  keeps  its  appointed 
time,  and  as  sure  as  " — a  great  many  other  things, 
when  a  friend  who  was  sitting  beside  me  gave  utter- 


USE  OF  ILL  USTRA  TIONS  IN  PRE  A  CHING.        i  q^ 

ance  to  these  words,  which,  for  me,  at  least,  blew  the 
preacher's  rhetoric  into  atoms,  ''  Tut !  tut !  what  does 
he  mean?  Do  not  the  very  boys  on  the  street  seal 
their  bargains  with  the  phrase,  '  As  sure's  death  ?  * 
Can't  he  say  that  and  press  forward  ? "  What  is 
already  clear  can  only  be  dimmed  by  the  attempt  to 
illustrate  it.  You  cannot  handle  crystal  without 
leaving  on  it  the  marks  of  your  touch,  and  they  mai» 
its  transparency.  Therefore,  when  you  are  dealing 
with  anything  which  is  perfectly  plain  in  itself,  leave 
it  "  simplex  munditiis,"  for  such  truths  "'  when  un- 
adorned "  are  ''  adorned  the  most." 

Again,  do  not  use  too  many  illustrations  for  the 
same  purpose.  The  effect  of  this  prodigality  will  be 
to  dazzle  your  hearers,  and  you  will  leave  them  be- 
wildered, when,  perhaps,  you  think  you  have  suc- 
ceeded in  leading  them  to  a  clear  apprehension  of 
your  point.  In  a  display  of  fireworks,  the  last  series 
of  dissolving  showers  of  variegated  sparks  puts  all 
that  went  before  it  out  of  mind,  and  very  soon  it,  too, 
will  fade  from  the  spectator's  memory,  leaving  only  a 
vague  impression  of  something  magnificent.  So,  in  a 
string  of  illustrations,  one  will  jostle  another  out  of 
the  hearer's  mind,  and  he  will  go  away  with  a  wonder- 
ful idea  of  the  wealth  of  your  resources,  but  with  a 
very  slight  impression  of  the  importance  of  the  truth 
which  you  have  been  attempting  to  enforce.  Re- 
member that  everything  you  say  is  virtually  thrown 
away  by  you  if  it  do  not  bear  on  the  elucidation  or 
application  of  that  subject  to  which  your  discourse  is 
professedly  devoted.     You  are  not  to  empty  out  your 


iq8  the  ministry  of  the  word. 

commonplace  book  before  the  eyes  of  your  people 
that  they  may  marvel  at  your  industry  in  collecting 
so  much,  but  you  are  to  make  the  truth  plain  to 
them,  even  if  they  should  never  think  of  you. 

I  once  spent  an  evening  with  an  enthusiastic  micro- 
scopist,  and  I  observed  that  always  before  he  asked 
me  to  look  through  his  instrument,  he  adjusted  a 
focal  mirror  in  such  a  way  as  to  bring  a  bright  point 
of  light  to  bear  upon  the  object  on  the  glass,  and 
then  when  I  looked  in  I  saw  the  butterfly's  wing,  or 
whatever  it  might  be,  not  only  magnified,  but  il- 
lumined. Now,  one  illustration  which,  like  that  mir- 
ror, will  focalize  the  light  of  analogy  upon  your  theme, 
will  be  worth  a  score  of  second-rate  similitudes  which 
merely  momentarily  flicker  before  it.  One  lamp  is 
worth  a  million  fire-flies. 

Still,  again,  do  not  employ  as  illustrations  things 
which  are  recondite  and  obscure,  needing  first  to  be 
explained  themselves.  The  more  simple  and  familiar 
your  analogies  are  the  better.  You  are  to  use  that 
with  which  your  people  are  already  acquainted  for 
the  purpose  of  making  clearer  to  them  that  which  is 
obscure.  Do  not  turn  the  sanctuary  into  a  place  for 
the  teaching  of  botany,  chemistry,  electricity, 
astronomy,  or  some  other  science,  in  order  that  you 
may  employ  the  facts  of  these  departments  to  illus- 
trate some  spiritual  truth.  Take  the  great  outstand- 
ing things  which  are  patent  to  all,  and  then  the  effect 
will  be  felt  by  all ;  but  if  you  follow  the  other  plan, 
your  discourses  will  drive  away  the  unlettered  with 
out  proving  attractive  even  to  the  votaries  of  science. 


USE  OF  ILL U ST R A  7L0NS  IN  FI^ BACHING,       igg 

The  editor  of  the  Preacher  s  Lantern  tells  of  a 
Scotchman  who  forsook  the  ministrations  of  the 
late  James  Hamilton  for  those  of  a  preacher  of  quite 
another  stamp,  and  who  gave  his  reasons  for  the 
change  in  these  words  :  ''  Eh,  sir !  the  doctor  is  jist  a 
gran'  man,  but  I  got  tired -o'  his  natural  history.  A 
little  while  ago  he  took  up  wi'  spiders.  I  never  kent 
before  that  there  was  a  science  of  spiders ;  what  he 
ca'd  arachnology.  Well,  sir,  for  a  number  of  Sundays 
he  was  always  saying  something  about  thae  spiders. 
He  was  a  gran'  man,  but  I  couldna  get  on  with  his 
natural  history."''^  The  author  of  ''  Life  in  Earn- 
est "  had  many  other  store-houses  of  illustration  than 
that  of  science,  and  made  full  proof  of  his  ministry  in 
the  scattering  of  similitudes  of  every  sort  all  along 
his  pathway,  but  such  an  incident,  even  in  his  career, 
may  well  serve  as  a  caution  to  meaner  men. 

You  will  misunderstand  me,  however,  if  you  sup- 
pose that  I  would  debar  you  from  the  employment 
of  any  analogy  which  scientific  research  may  suggest. 
On  the  contrary,  some  of  these  are  so  simple  in  them- 
selves, and  so  striking  when  wisely  applied,  that  you 
would  be  doing  yourselves  a  great  injustice  if  you 
were  to  refuse  their  aid.  Only  study  variety  in  your 
employment  of  them.  Do  not  go  always  to  the  same 
quarter  in  search  of  them.  Gather  them  from  every 
field.  Be  not  so  constantly  referring  to  the  ocean, 
that  men  will  say  that  your  occupation  will  be  gone 
when  ''  there  shall  be  no  more  sea."     Have  no  specialty 


*  "The  Preacher's  Lantern,"  Vol.  IT.,  p.  21, 


200  THE  MINISTR  Y  OF   THE   WORD. 

in  this  department,  but  welcome  analogy  no  matter 
from  what  quarter  it  may  come  to  you. 

Do  not  be  afraid  even  of  one  which  may  have  a 
dash  of  humor  in  it.  I  would  not  choose  it  for  the 
humor  of  it,  but  neither  would  I  reject  it  on  that 
account,  if  it  were  peculiarly  pat.  There  are  some, 
indeed,  who  think  it  is  wrong  to  utter  a  word  in  the 
pulpit  that  might  make  a  smile  ripple  over  an  au- 
dience. And,  indeed,  if  the  production  of  the  smile 
were  the  only  reason  for  saying  it,  I  should  be  dis- 
posed to  agree  with  them.  But  if,  in  spite  of  the 
smile,  the  illustration  will  rivet  a  truth  in  the  mind 
of  the  hearer,  then  I  should  not  hesitate  to  employ  it. 
There  is  as  little  that  is  harmful  in  the  laugh  on  such 
an  occasion,  as  there  is  that  is  commendable  in  the 
tear  which  flows  at  the  telling  of  a  pathetic  story. 
To  try  to  provoke  either,  for  its  own  sake,  is  always 
contemptible  ;  but  to  use  both  for  the  higher  purpose 
of  commending  the  truth  to  the  conscience,  is  really 
praiseworthy.  I  think  I  can  see  a  twinkle  in  Paul's 
eye,  as  he  dictates  a  reference  to  the  ''  profitableness  " 
of  Onesimus  in  his  letter  to  Philemon  ;  and,  provided 
we  consecrate  it  to  Christ,  and  keep  it  always  in 
proper  subordination,  we  may  find  a  place  even  for 
humor  in  the  sphere  of  illustration. 

Farther,  when  we  use  a  fact  in  science,  or  an  in- 
cident in  history,  or  a  story  from  common  life,  or  a 
process  in  some  ordinary  occupation,  we  must  be 
sure  that  we  have  got  it  accurately.  I  was  one  day 
trying  to  illustrate  something  to  my  Liverpool  people, 
who  were  familiar  with    everything  about  shipping. 


USE  OF  ILL  US  TRA  TIONS  IN  PRE  A  CIIEVG.       20 1 

by  the  setting  sail  of  a  vessel.  I  used  the  word 
^^  shrouds,''  as  if  it  had  been  synonymous  with  ^^  sails,'' 
and  when  I  saw  the  smile,  half-compassionate,  and 
half-contemptuous,  with  which  my  error  was  received 
by  my  hearers,  I  mentally  resolved  that  I  would 
never  again  venture  on  anything  in  the  way  of  illus- 
tration with  which  I  was  not  absolutely  familiar.  Th 
auditors  must  be  acquainted  with  everything  which 
we  use  for  that  purpose,  that  they  may  feel  its  force  ; 
but  we  must  be  accurate  in  its  statement,  that  we 
may  retain  their  confidence,  for  if  they  see  that  we 
cannot  be  depended  on  in  their  department,  they  will 
place  no  reliance  on  us  in  our  own. 

Finally,  we  must  be  always  careful  to  let  the  full 
force  of  the  illustration  go  to  illuminate  the  truth 
which  we  are  expounding.  We  must  not  detain  the 
attention  of  the  people  on  the  picture,  but  use  it  for 
the  purpose  of  irradiating  the  subject  which  we  have 
in  hand.  The  foot-lights  of  the  theatre  are  studiously 
veiled  from  the  eyes  of  the  spectators,  but  they  throw 
a  lustre  on  the  actor's  face.  Like  them,  our  illustra- 
tions must  not  draw  attention  to  themselves,  but  cast 
all  their  brightness  on  the  truth.  Rivet  your  nail 
after  you  have  driven  it.  Do  not  allow^  the  applica- 
tion of  your  analogy  to  take  care  of  itself,  but  see  to 
it  that  it  leaves  the  precise  impression  that  you  de- 
signed it  to  produce.  In  your  anxiety  to  do  that, 
however,  beware  lest  you  run  your  illustration  into 
the  ground  by  drawing  your  simile  out  into  the 
minutest  details.  A  single  phrase,  sometimes  even  two 
or  three  words  may  do  the  work  more  effectively  than 
9* 


202  THE  MINISTR  Y  OF  THE   WORD. 

it  could  be  performed  in  a  whole  sentence  or  para- 
graph. In  his  famous  inaugural  address  to  the  stu- 
dents of  the  Glasgow  University,  Brougham,  following 
in  the  wake  of  Longinus,  directs  attention  to  the 
excellence  of  Demosthenes  in  this  respect.  He  re- 
minds us  that  when  that  ancient  orator  *'  would  com- 
pare the  effects  of  the  Theban  treaty  in  dispelling 
dangers  that  compassed  the  state  round  about,  to  the 
swift  passing  away  of  a  stormy  cloud,  he  satisfied 
himself  with  the  words  coonep  vepog — the  just  theme  of 
admiration  to  succeeding  ages ;  and  when  he  would 
paint  the  sudden  approach  of  overwhelming  peril  to 
beset  the  state,  he  does  it  by  a  stroke,  the  picturesque 
effect  of  which  has  not,  perhaps,  been  enough  noted, 
likening  it  to  a  whirlwind,  or  a  winter  torrent,  (boTzep 
GK7}TTTbg  fj  x^i'f^fippovg.'''  The  same  authority  contrasts 
these  with  the  weakening  amplifications  with  which 
Burke  marred  the  effect  of  his  fine  description  of 
those  who  suffered  from  Hyder's  devastations,  as 
"  enveloped  in  a  whirlwind  of  cavalry."  The  tempta- 
tion, when  one  has  a  good  illustration,  is  to  overdo 
it ;  and  so  to  overlay  that  which  we  are  seeking  to 
make  plain. 

That  was  the  tendency  of  Dr.  Guthrie,  and  in  this 
regard,  his  friend,  William  Arnot,  is  a  much  safer 
model.  That  which  Guthrie  would  have  spread  over 
an  entire  page,  elaborating  every  particular  with  pre- 
Raphael-like  minuteness,  Arnot  would  have  given  in 
a  sentence  ;  and,  while  the  hearer  of  the  former 
would  have  said,  "  What  a  beautiful  illustration ! " 
that  of  the  latter  would  have  exclaimed,  "  How  clear 
he  made  it  all  by  that  simple  figure !  " 


USE  OF  ILL  USTRA  TIONS  IN  PRE  A  CHING.      203 

In  the  light-house  at  Sandy  Hook,  by  a  beautiful 
combination  of  the  catoptric  and  dioptric  principles, 
a  reflector  behind,  and  a  many-ringed  lantern  in  front, 
things  are  arranged  in  such  a  manner  that  no  ray 
from  the  lamps  is  lost,  but  all  are  bent  out  to  the 
wide  ocean,  to  bid  the  mariner  welcome  to  our  shores. 
So  in  using  our  illustrations  we  should  contrive  to  bring 
every  part  of  them  to  bear  on  the  truth  which  is  before 
us.  We  must  not  turn  them  on  our  own  faces  ;  neither 
must  we  give  our  hearers  the  idea  that  they  have  been 
enjoying  an  intellectual  or  oratorical  treat,  rather  than 
listening  to  a  sermon.  Jesus  and  His  truth  must  be 
always  in  the  midst,  and  not  only  in  the  midst,  but 
conspicuously  there,  as  the  grand  themes  of  our  glory 
and  our  joy.  Macaulay  tells  us  in  his  brilliant  article 
on  Southey's  *'  Bunyan,"  *  that  James  the  Second  sat 
for  his  portrait  to  Varelst,  the  famous  flower  painter. 
When  the  performance  was  finished,  his  Majesty  ap- 
peared in  the  midst  of  a  bower  of  sun-flowers  and 
tulips,  which  completely  drew  away  attention  from 
the  central  figure,  so  that  all  who  looked  at  it  took  it 
for  a  flower  piece.  Let  not  the  lesson  be  lost  on  us. 
It  is  as  criminal  to  hide  the  Christ  beneath  gorgeous 
illustrations  as  it  is  to  ignore  Him  altogether.  He 
must  be  supreme.  We  may,  and  ought,  to  cover  our 
faces  before  Him ;  but  we  must  never  put  a  veil,  no 
matter  how  exquisite  may  be  its  texture,  over  His 
benignant  countenance. 


*  Macaulay's  Critical  and  Historical  Essays.       People's  edi- 
tion.    Vol.  I.,  p.  133. 


LECTURE    IX. 

THE   CONDUCT   OF  PUBLIC  WORSHIP — READING  OF 
THE   SCRIPTURES. 


LECTURE    IX. 

THE   CONDUCT   OF  PUBLIC  WORSHIP — READING  OF 
THE   SCRIPTURES. 

TT  may  seem  strange,  at  first  sight,  that  in  a  course 
-*-  of  lectures  on  preaching  any  place  should  be 
found  for  remark  on  the  devotional  services  of  the 
sanctuary.  But  the  two  things  are  not  generically 
different.  It  is  alleged,  indeed,  by  many  that  we 
who  have  no  formal  liturgy,  exalt  the  sermon  at  the 
expense  of  the  worship.  But  they  who  speak  in  such 
a  fashion,  forget  that  preaching  and  hearing  from  the 
Word  of  God,  when  they  are  engaged  in  by  pastor 
and  people  out  of  love  to  Christ,  and  with  a  desire  to 
honor  Him,  are  as  really  worship  as  praise  and  prayer. 
Cornelius  was  as  truly  rendering  homage  to  Jehovah, 
when  he  said  to  Peter :  "  Now,  therefore,  are  we  all 
here  present  before  God  to  hear  all  things  that  are 
commanded  thee  of  God,"*  as  when  he  was  on  his 
knees  in  prayer.  And  if  our  modern  church-goers 
were  to  reflect  that  still  God  prepares  preacher  and 
hearer  for  meeting  each  other,  and  by  the  providence 
of  His  Spirit  gives  the  one  a  message  for  the  other, 
there  would  be  in  them  both  a  devouter  sense  of 


*  Acts  X.  33. 

(207) 


208  I^HE  MINISTRY  OF   THE    WORD. 

reverence  toward  God  in  the  exercises  of  delivering 
and  listening  to  a  sermon. 

Not  now,  indeed,  by  ''  visions  on  the  housetop," 
does  God  fit  His  servants  for  speaking  to  their  fellow- 
men,  but  through  the  discipline  and  suggestions  of 
the  week ;  through  family  cares  or  pastoral  experi- 
ences ;  through  public  events  or  private  conflicts.  He 
leads  them  to  such  a  choice  of  subjects  and  such  a 
treatment  of  them,  that  they  have  a  message  specially 
adapted  to  at  least  some  of  their  hearers.  And  in 
the  same  way  He  has  been  preparing  the  hearers  for 
its  reception  ;  the  ploughshare  has  made  the  soil  ready 
for  the  taking  in  of  the  seed.  So  every  sermon  that 
is  prepared  as  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord  finds  the  Cor- 
nelius for  whom  it  was  designed  ;  and  every  Cornelius 
who  comes  into  the  sanctuary  seeking  to  know  what 
is  commanded  him  of  God,  gets  the  message  for  which 
he  was  looking.  And  what  is  that,  if  it  be  not  wor- 
ship? The  preaching  is  regarded  by  both  as  an 
ordinance  of  God,  and  so  the  souls  of  both  are  seek- 
ing to  serve  God  through  it. 

But,  to  look  at  the  matter  in  another  light,  every 
one  must  perceive  that  the  sermon  and  the  service 
act  and  react  upon  each  other.  The  preacher  who 
begins  his  discourse  after  a  fervent  prayer  and  an  in- 
spiring hymn,  is  always  more  animated  and  earnest 
than  he  would  have  been  if  the  devotional  exercises 
had  been  languid  and  formal.  And  after  an  impress- 
ive sermon,  even  the  most  careless  worshiper  must 
have  been  moved  by  the  hush  of  reverence  with 
which  the  people  join  in  prayer,  and  the  enthusiasm 


THE  CONDUCT  OF  PUBLIC  WORSHIP.  209 

of  soul  and  voice  with  which  they  sing  the  closing 
hymn. 

Besides,  in  our  form  of  worship,  the  main  respon- 
sibility for  the  service  rests  upon  the  preacher  ;  and  so, 
it  cannot  be  out  of  place  to  consider  the  subject  here. 

It  will  not  be  expected,  however,  that  I  should 
enter  into  a  disquisition  upon  the  general  question 
of  worship,  or  seek  to  compare  the  advantages  and 
disadvantages  of  the  different  forms  which  have  been 
adopted  by  different  churches.  I  am  not  here  to 
speak  of  the  spectacular  ritual  of  the  Church  of  Rome, 
or  of  the  liturgical  service  of  the  Protestant  Epis- 
copalians ;  neither  am  I  required  to  insist  upon  the 
superiority  of  our  own  severely  simple  form.  Each 
has  its  own  elements  of  attractiveness  ;  and  though,  on 
what  we  consider  Scriptural  grounds,  we  may  prefer 
our  own,  we  may  have  something  better  to  do  than 
to  anathematize  the  others.  The  essential  things  in 
all  worship  are  that  it  be  spiritual  and  true  ;  and  if 
we  condemn  some  for  exalting  certain  accessories 
into  indispensable  elements  of  religious  service,  we 
must  ourselves  beware  of  insisting  on  the  absence  of 
these,  as  if  that  were  absolutely  needful  to  insure 
spirituality.  Whenever  any  form  or  the  exclusion  of 
any  form  is  made  imperative,  there  is  a  danger  of  im- 
perilling the  spirit.  That  which  is  worshiped,  if  it  be 
not  God,  is  an  idol,  whether  it  be  made  merely  of 
lead,  or  of  the  purest  gold  ;  and  if  we  make  an  idol 
of  our  plain  Puritan  service,  it  will  be  a  snare  to  us, 
just  as  really  as  his  processional  pomp  may  be  to  the 
High-Church  Episcopalian. 


21 0  THE  MINISTRY  OF   THE    WORD. 

But  the  question  with  which  I  have  now  to  deal  is 
this,  How  shall  we  conduct  that  service  which  is 
generally  adopted  among  us,  so  as  to  secure  that  it 
shall  be  most  acceptable  to  God,  and  most  refreshing 
and  stimulating  to  us  and  to  the  congregation  ? 

Now,  here,  it  is  pertinent  to  remind  you  that  the 
first  grand  indispensable  qualification  for  the  leading 
of  public  devotion  is  a  filial  heart.  The  ''  true  wor- 
shiper" is  he  that  "worships  the  Father.""^  Sonship 
will  attune  the  heart  to  spirituality.  It  is  not  with- 
out great  significance,  in  this  regard,  that  the  prayer, 
so  simple  in  its  terms  and  so  wide  in  its  comprehen- 
siveness, which  Jesus  taught  His  disciples,  should 
begin  with  these  words,  "  Our  FatJicrT  Thus,  the 
Saviour  would  bid  us  pause  a  moment  on  the  very 
threshold  of  our  devotions,  that  we  may  set  defi- 
nitely before  our  minds  what  God  is  to  us,  ere  we 
go  forward  to  present  our  petitions.  Well  has  the 
good  Leighton  said  here :  "  This  is  one  great  cause 
of  our  wandering,  that  we  do  not,  at  our  entrance 
into  prayer,  compose  ourselves  to  due  thoughts  of 
God  and  to  set  ourselves  in  His  presence ;  this  would 
do  much  to  ballast  our  minds,  that  they  tumble  not 
to  and  fro,  as  is  their  custom. "f  Even  if  He  stood  in 
a  less  endearing  relationship  to  us,  it  would  still  be 
proper  for  us,  when  we  pray  unto  Him,  to  put  clearly 
before  our  minds  what  He  is  to  us  and  what  we  are 
to  Him ;  but  since  He  has  revealed  Himself  in  Christ 


*  John  iv.  23. 

t  The  Works  of  Archbishop  Leighton,  Nelson's  Edition,  p.  452. 


THE  CONDUCT  OF  PUBLIC  WORSHIP.  21I 

as  "  Our  Father,"  it  is  of  the  highest  moment,  if 
our  supphcations  are  to  be  either  natural  or  sincere, 
that  we  reahze  all  that  such  a  declaration  implies. 
If,  for  example,  we  lose  consciousness  of  His  Father- 
hood, and  think  of  Him  only  as  the  Judge  who  shall 
render  unto  every  man  according  to  his  works,  we 
shall  come  to  the  throne  of  grace  as  if  it  were  the 
throne  of  judgment,  and  fear  and  trembling  will  get 
hold  upon  us.  If,  again,  we  allow  the  thought  that 
He  is  a  King  to  take  exclusive  possession  of  our  souls, 
our  minds  will  be  so  occupied  about  the  manner  of 
our  coming  to  Him  that  we  shall  be  apt  to  forget  the 
matter  for  which  we  come ;  and  our  services  may  be 
a  pompous  ritual,  like  the  ceremonials  connected  with 
the  court  of  an  earthly  prince,  but  they  will  be  like 
these  also,  in  a  large  degree,  mere  empty  forms. 

I  am  persuaded,  therefore,  that  much  of  the  life- 
lessness  and  artificialness  of  our  public  devotions  is 
to  be  traced  to  the  fact,  that  we  have  not  received 
"  the  spirit  of  adoption."  The  spirit  of  adoption  and 
the  spirit  of  supplication  is  one.  What  liberty  is  that 
which  a  son  enjoys  ?  How  he  comes  bounding  into 
our  room,  no  matter  how  we  may  be  engaged,  calcu- 
lating that  we  will  welcome  him,  and  knowing  that 
when  he  has  laid  hold  of  our  fatherhood,  he  has  laid 
hold  of  our  strength  !  How  little  is  there  of  the 
artificial  or  insincere  in  such  an  approach  as  he  makes 
to  us  !  But  it  is  not  otherwise  in  our  applications  to 
God.  It  is  easy  to  be  sincere  in  offering  all  the  peti- 
tions of  the  Lord's  Prayer,  when  we  have  been  able 
to  appropriate  the  first  two  words  and  to  call  God 


212  THE  MINISTRY  OF  THE   WORD.- 

"  Our  Father,"  and  all  unnatural  and  unreal  formal- 
ism will  disappear  when  we  enter  fully  into  the  enjoy- 
ment "  of  the  glorious  liberty  of  the  children  of  God." 

Then,  as  regards  praise,  the  same  thing  holds  good. 
What  joy  a  daughter  has  in  singing  to  her  father  ! 
There  is  no  thought  of  weariness  or  of  indifference, 
but  every  effort  is  put  forth  to  please  him.  So,  if  we 
but  recognize  that  God  is  our  Father,  and  that  He  is 
listening  to  our  songs,  our  hymns  will  be  no  longer 
vapid  and  uninteresting,  but  will  become  heart-stir- 
ring and  ennobling,  'and  we  shall  rival  David  when  he 
says,  '^  My  heart  is  fixed,  O  God,  my  heart  is  fixed  ! 
I  will  sing  and  give  praise.  Awake,  psaltery  and 
harp,  I  myself  will  awake  early  !"^ 

Here  is  the  radical  cure  for  dull  devotion,  power- 
less prayer,  and  uninteresting  worship.  We  need  no 
splendid  liturgy  or  gorgeous  ritual.  We  need  only  a 
fresh  baptism  with  "  the  spirit  of  adoption  ;"  we  need 
only  the  hearts  of  sons  glowing  with  love  for  our  God 
and  Father  in  Christ  Jesus,  and  then,  filial  happiness 
filling  our  souls,  "  hosannas  "  will  no  longer  ''  lan- 
guish on  our  tongues,"  nor  prayer  come  faltering 
feebly  from  our  lips.  The  first  song  of  ''  the  morn- 
ing stars  "  was  accompanied  with  the  joyful  shout- 
ing of  "  the  sons  of  God ;"  and  when  the  worshipers 
in  our  modern  sanctuaries  shall  realize  their  divine 
relationship,  their  praises  will  be  but  the  undertone 
of  the  angelic  harmonies. 

But,  bearing  in  mind  this  important  principle,  let 


*  Psalm  Ivii.  7,  8. 


THE  CONDUCT  OF  PUBLIC  WORSHIP.  213 

US  proceed  to  take  up  each  of  the  departments  of 
the  public  service  and  see  what  is  needed,  in  order  to 
give  to  each  its  best  expression  and  to  get  from  each 
the  fullest  benefit. 

I  begin  with  the  reading  of  the  Word  of  God.  The 
day  has  gone,  I  trust  forever,  when  the  public  read- 
ing of  the  Scriptures  can  be  regarded  as  a  work  of 
supererogation,  or  as  a  device  of  a  poorly-prepared 
preacher  for  filling  out  the  time  allotted  for  the  serv- 
ices of  the  sanctuary.  They  tell  in  Scotland  that 
when  a  worthy  minister  in  Aberdeenshire  was  remon- 
strated with  by  a  committee  of  his  parishioners  for 
making  this  exercise  a  prominent  part  of  public  wor- 
ship, he  covered  his  censors  with  confusion  by  turn- 
ing to  the  title-page  of  the  Bible,  which,  as  you  know, 
is  printed  in  Great  Britain  by  royal  authority,  and 
showing  them  these  words,  "  By  His  Majesty's  special 
command  appointed  to  be  read  in  churches ! "  But 
we  have  "  another  King,  one  Jesus,"  and  when  vv^e 
learn  that  ''  He  went  into  the  synagogue  on  the  Sab- 
bath-day and  stood  up  for  to  read,"^^  we  have  the 
highest  possible  warrant  for  bringing  into  the  fore- 
most place  in  the  exercises  of  the  sanctuary  the  Word 
of  the  living  God.  It  is  true,  indeed,  that  the  Bible  is 
widely  diffused  among  the  people,  and  that,  happily, 
there  is  now  no  longer  a  ''  famine  of  hearing  the 
words  of  the  Lord,"'}'  like  that  which,  in  the  days  of 
the  Reformation  in  England,  made  the  people  throng 
around  the  learned  clerk  as  he  read  out  of  the  great 


*  Luke  iv.  16.  t  Am^;;  viii,  11. 


214  '^^^  MINISTRY  OF   THE    WORD. 

Bible  that  was  chained  to  the  pillar  in  the  crypt  of 
old  St.  Paul's.  But  still  it  is  right  that  the  book 
should  be  publicly  read,  not  only  that  all  may  see 
that  preacher  and  hearer  make  it  the  ultimate  stand- 
ard of  appeal,  but  also  that  the  minds  and  hearts  of 
the  worshipers  may  be  rightly  affected  as  they  draw 
near  to  God.  Besides,  one  is  more  deeply  moved  by 
what  he  hears  from  the  lips  of  another,  than  by  what 
he  reads  in  his  closet.  Few  portions  of  the  New 
Testament  are  more  familiar  than  the  eighth  chapter 
of  the  Romans,  and  yet,  if  I  may  judge  from  my  own 
experience,  much  as  I  always  enjoy  the  perusal  of  that 
section  of  Scripture  by  myself,  I  have  never  heard 
it  read  by  another  without  receiving  a  profounder  im- 
pression of  some  part  of  the  argument,  or  obtaining 
a  fresh  glimpse  into  the  meaning  of  some  of  its' verses. 
We  ought  not,  therefore,  to  regard  this  part  of  the 
service  as  of  subordinate  importance,  or  to  engage  in 
it  in  a  perfunctory  manner.  Let  us  feel  that  we  are 
dealing  with  the  Word  of  God,  and  that  will  produce 
within  us*  such  reverence  and  docility  of  spirit,  that 
as  we  read,  the  people  will  be  hushed  into  attentive- 
ness,  and  will  listen,  not  as  unto  us,  but  as  unto  God. 
If  we  go  into  it  as  a  mere  form,  or  because  it  is  a 
part  of  what  are  commonly,  but  very  erroneousl)^ 
called,  the  introductory  services,  we  shall  read  auto- 
matically, having  ourselves  no  intelligent  apprehen- 
sion of  the  meaning  of  what  we  read,  and  giving  no 
help  or  light  to  those  who  hear.  But,  if  in  our  own 
sanctified  imagination  we  place  ourselves  before  the 
God  and   Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  hear 


THE  CONDUCT  OF  PUBLIC  WORSHIP.  215 

Him  speaking  to  ourselves,  v/e  shall  succeed  in  inter- 
preting Him  to  the  people,  so  that  they  will  listen 
and  obey.  The  first  canon  here,  therefore,  as  in  all 
else,  is  that  you  be  yourselves  really  impressed  with 
what  you  read. 

A  few  hints,  however,  may  be  added  from  one's 
own  experience.  Be  sure,  then,  in  the  first  place, 
that  the  passage  which  you  select  is  adapted  for  pub- 
lic reading.  ''  All  Scripture  is  given  by  inspiration 
of.  God,  and  is  profitable  ;"  but  it  is  not  all  equally 
well -fitted  for  public  perusal.  Some  two  or  three 
years  ago,  an  intimate  friend  from  the  other  side  of 
the  Atlantic,  occupied  my  pulpit,  and  read  the  latter 
half  of  the  third  chapter  of  Luke's  gospel,  which 
consists  of  the  genealogy  of  Joseph,  the  reputed 
father  of  Jesus,  and  as  he  went  on  with  the  ever- 
recurring  phrase,  "  which  was  the  son  of,"  '^  which  was 
the  son  of,"  "which  was  the  son  of,"  etc.,  I  saw  a 
broad  grin  spreading  over  the  faces  of  the  people, 
which  indicated  that  he  had  made  a  great  mistake. 
When  he  announced  his  text  in  the  words,  ''  Adam, 
which  was  the  son  of  God,"  I  could  see  why  he  had 
chosen  to  read  such  a  passage  ;  but  still  the  fact  that 
his  theme  was  taken  from  the  last  entry  in  the  table, 
was  no  proper  reason  for  reading  the  whole  of  it,  and 
the  amusement  of  his  hearers  at  the  strangeness  of 
his  selection,  was  a  most  unfortunate  preparation,  or 
rather  it  was  an  actual  disturbance  of  their  minds  for 
the  prayer  which  followed. 

Choose  your  passages  for  reading  from  your  knowl- 
edge of  the  circumstances  of  your  people,  as  well  as 


2i6  THE  MINISTRY  OF    THE    WORD. 

out  of  regard  to  the  topic  which  you  are  about  to 
submit  to  their  consideration.  It  is  well,  as  far  as 
possible,  to  give  unity  to  the  service  ;  yet  that  must 
not  be  sought  at  the  sacrifice  of  any  important  inter- 
est. The  didactic  ought  to  yield  to  the  devotional, 
rather  than  the  devotional  to  the  didactic  ;  and  if 
you  cannot  find  some  portion  of  Scripture  which 
shows  the  devotional  bearing  of  the  subject  which 
you  are  going  to  treat,  then  make  your  selection  on 
the  general  principle  of  securing  that  which  will  be 
most  appropriate  to  the  greatest  number  of  your 
parishioners.  Your  pastoral  visitation,  of  which  I 
shall  have  more  to  say  in  another  Lecture,  w^ill  be  of 
great  assistance  to  you  here  ;  for  your  knowledge  of 
the  characters  and  conditions  of  your  people  which 
you  acquire  thereby,  will  enable  you  to  fix  upon  such 
portions  of  Scripture  as  will  be  truly  helpful  to  them, 
and  to  present  such  petitions  as  will  carry  up  wdth 
them  the  burdens  of  their  hearts  to  God.  That  which 
you  select  with  one  case  in  view  will  commonly  meet 
many  others,  and  not  seldom  a  hearer  may  take  you 
by  the  hand  and  thank  you  for  throwing  a  new  light 
on  his  path,  by  directing  his  attention  to  a  passage 
which  he  had  never  noted  before,  but  wdiich  he  now 
feels  to  be  unspeakably  precious  to  him. 

You  will  find  a  rich  treasury  of  such  sustaining 
sayings  in  the  book  of  Psalms,  and  a  precious  store- 
house of  them  in  the  four  gospels,  while  the  expe- 
rience of  the  apostles,  as  unfolded  in  their  epistles, 
can  scarcely  ever  be  inappropriate.  But  your  own 
private  devotional  reading  will  be  here  your  greatest 


THE  CONDUCT  OF  PUBLIC  WORSHIP.  217 

helper,  for  what  you  have  found  to  be  profitable  to 
your  own  soul,  will  always  be  serviceable  to  others, 
especially  because  in  your  reading  of  that  there  will 
be  such  emphasis  of  emotion  unconsciously  made,  as 
shall  infallibly  arrest  the  attention  of  the  hearer,  and 
reveal  to  him  the  peculiar  shade  of  thought  which 
has  so  affected  you. 

While,  however,  in  the  public  reading  of  the  Scrip- 
tures it  is  well  to  give  particular  prominence  to  the 
devotional  portions  of  the  Word  of  God,  you  must 
not  overlook  the  practical  or  the  doctrinal.  Religion 
is  a  creed  and  a  life  as  well  as  an  emotion,  and  in 
order  that  it  should  be  the  last  in  any  real  and  ra- 
tional sense,  it  must  also  be  the  former  two.  This  is 
probably  the  reason  why  in  the  liturgy  of  the  Episco- 
pal Church  a  place  has  been  made  for  the  recitation 
of  the  creed  and  for  the  reading  of  the  ten  command- 
ments, as  well  as  for  the  use  of  the  litany.  Now  we 
may  act  upon  this  same  principle  while  yet  we  do  not 
confine  ourselves  to  the  use  of  these  forms.  Thus  at 
one  time  we  may  give  prominence  to  the  doctrine  of 
the  Incarnation,  by  using  the  first  portion  of  the 
Gospel  by  John  ;  and  at  another  we  may  set  clearly 
forth  the  doctrine  of  the  atonement,  by  reading  the 
third  chapter  of  the  Romans.  Similarly  we  may  place 
distinctly  before  the  minds  of  the  hearers  the  work 
of  the  Holy  Ghost  in  regeneration,  by  the  selection 
of  the  third  chapter  of  John's  gospel ;  or  the  blessed- 
ness of  the  forgiveness  of  sins  by  choosing  the  32d 
psalm. 

Again,  we  may  find  a  place  on  one  day  for  the  read- 


2i8  THE   MI. VIS  TRY  OF    THE    WORD. 

ing  of  the  law  ;  on  another  for  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount ;  on  another,  for  some  portion  from  the  Epis- 
tle of  James ;  and  on  yet  another,  for  one  of  the  con- 
cluding chapters  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans. 

Thus,  that  which  has  been  done  for  Episcopalians  by 
the  compilers  of  the  Prayer-Book,  in  their  observance 
of  the  festivals  of  the  Christian  year,  we  may  and 
ought  to  do  for  ourselves.  We  should  not  leave  our 
selection  of  passages  to  the  mood  of  the  moment,  or 
the  hap-hazard  of  the  morning,  but  should  endeavor 
to  observe  some  system  in  accordance  with  which  we 
shall  be  able  to  give  its  proper  place  to  each  of  the 
various  departments  of  "  doctrine,  reproof,  correction, 
and  instruction  in  righteousness."  For  this  purpose 
all  parts  of  the  sacred  volume  should  be  laid  under 
tribute,  and  you  will  do  well  to  pay  especial  attention 
to  those  unfrequented  portions  of  it,  in  which  will  be 
found  some  of  its  most  startling  utterances,  and  some 
of  its  most  beautiful  and  consoling  sayings.  At  any 
rate,  have  some  plan  which  you  follow,  so  that  at 
length  your  readings  shall  give  a  full-orbed  presenta- 
tion of  Christian  truth. 

Then,  as  to  the  length  of  your  selections,  you  must 
be  guided  by  circumstances.  The  division  into  chap- 
ters, though  very  convenient  for  many  purposes,  is 
not  always  happily  made,  and  may  occasionally  be 
disregarded.  Sometimes  it  may  be  well  to  read  more 
than  one  chapter,  and  sometimes  a  brief  section  may 
suffice.  Only  do  not  let  it  be  too  brief.  Many  pas- 
tors, as  it  seems  to  me,  deal  with  the  Scriptures 
homeopathically,  and  give  them  out  in  globules  and 


THE  CONDUCT  OF  PUBLIC  WORSHIP.  219 

triturations.  They  seem  to  be  afraid  to  read  more 
than  a  very  few  verses,  and  judging  from  their  man- 
ner all  through,  you  would  infer  that  it  was  a  weari- 
ness to  read  even  so  few.  They  are  impatient  to  be 
at  their  sermon,  or  they  know  that  they  have  a  some- 
what longer  discourse  than  usual,  and  the  Bible  read- 
ing must  make  way  for  their  lucubrations.  Now, 
that  is  all  wrong.  Read  such  a  portion,  as  that  all 
who  hear  you  may  understand  that  you  regard  God's 
Word  as  of  prime  importance.  Why  should  we  not 
occasionally  take  even  so  large  a  section  as  the  entire 
Sermon  on  the  Mount  ?  or  a  whole  division  of  Paul's 
argument  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  ?  Well  read, 
I  can  conceive  that  such  passages  would  have  tremen- 
dous power,  while  the  unity  of  design  running  through 
them,  would  certainly  have  an  effect  on  the  under- 
standing as  well  as  on  the  hearts  of  the  hearers. 

Give  your  whole  attention  to  that  which  you  are 
reading.  Forget  your  sermon  for  the  time.  Dismiss, 
meanwhile,  from  your  mind  all  thought  about  the 
prayer  which  you  are  about  to  offer.  Let  your  whole 
soul  be  concentrated  on  the  portion  of  God's  Word 
which  you  have  selected,  else  your  reading  will  be 
lifeless  and  perfunctory.  I  have  heard  a  distinguished 
clergyman  say  that  frequently  his  mind  was  so  pre- 
occupied v/ith  the  discourse  which  he  was  about  to 
deliver,  that  his  reading  of  the  Scriptures  was  me- 
chanical, and  when  it  was  over  he  could  not  have  told 
what  the  chapter  was  about.  Now,  it  is  impossible 
that  any  one  should  interest  his  people  in  the  Word 
of  God,  if  he  reads  it   publicly  in  such  a  fashion  as 


220 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  THE   WORD. 


that.  Remember  that  it  is  God's  word  you  are  deal- 
ing with,  and  that  greater  results  may  be  expected 
from  that  than  from  any  preaching  of  yours.  The 
reading  ought  not  to  be  subordinate  to  your  sermon, 
but  your  sermon  ought  to  be  subordinate  to  it.  In- 
deed, the  end  of  your  preaching  will  be  secured,  in  a 
large  measure,  when  you  have  stirred  up  the  hearers 
to  search  the  Scriptures,  whether  the  things  which 
you  have  spoken  are  confirmed  by  them  or  not ;  but 
if,  in  your  public  treatment  of  the  Word  of  God,  you 
are  listless  and  mechanical,  you  cannot  hope  to  inter- 
est any  one  in  the  study  of  it.  The  eloquent  McAll, 
of  Manchester,  England,  is  reported  to  have  said  :  ''  If 
the  Lord  had  appointed  two  officers  in  His  Church, 
the  one  to  preach  the  Gospel  and  the  other  to  read 
the  Scriptures,  and  had  given  me  the  choice  of  these, 
I  should  have  chosen  to  be  a  reader  of  the  inspired 
Word  of  God,"  and  with  such  an  opinion,  we  are  not 
surprised  to  learn  that  he  excelled  in  that  exercise ; 
nay,  it  is  not  improbable  that  his  deep  reverence  for 
the  Bible  so  manifested,  contributed  largely  to  the 
power  of  his  discourses. 

Endeavor  to  indicate  the  meaning  of  the  passage 
by  your  mode  of  reading  it.  Good  reading  is  good 
interpretation ;  and  delicate  shades  of  significance 
which  you  have  discovered  for  yourself  in  the  study, 
may  be  revealed  by  your  emphasis  even  without  a 
word  of  explanation.  Examples  in  illustration  of 
this  assertion  will  readily  occur  to  you.  Thus  in  the 
chapter  on  the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  in  the  first 
Epistle  to   the    Corinthians,   most    people    read    the 


THE  CONDUCT  OF  PUBLIC  WORSHIP.  221 

words,  "  For  this  corruptible  must  put  on  incorrup- 
tion,"  as  if  the  word  ''  must  "  were  simply  the  auxiliary 
to  the  verb  ''put  on ;"  but  in  the  original  we  find  that 
the  phrase  literally  means,  "  For  it  is  necessary  that 
this  corruptible  should  put  on  incorruption,"  and  so 
good  reading  will  make  the  ''must"  emphatic;  and 
when  that  is  done,  it  is  seen  at  once  that  the  verse  has 
an  important  part  in  the  apostle's  argument. 

Again,  in  the  first  verse  of  John's  gospel,  the  full 
force  of  the  words  is  lost  in  the  reading  which  is  com- 
mon, and  which  puts  the  emphasis  on  "was,"  but 
when  we  enter  fully  into  the  meaning  of  the  Evangel- 
ist and  lay  the  stress  on  the  several  predicates  in- 
stead of  on  the  copula,  thus — "  In  the  beginning  was 
the  zvord ;  and  the  word  was  WITH  GOD  ;  and  the  word 
was  GOD  ;"  then  the  force  of  the  verse  as  an  assertion 
of  the  Deity  of  the  Word  is  overwhelming. 

So  in  Paul's  injunction  to  the  Romans,  "  If  it  be 
possible,  as  much  as  lieth  in  you,  live  peaceably  with 
all  men,"  the  point  is  lost  by  emphasizing  the  "in," 
as  is  so  commonly  done,  for  that  makes  the  second 
clause  only  a  reduplication  of  the  first ;  but  when  we 
put  the  stress  on  "  you,"  and  read  thus,  "  If  it  be  pos- 
sible, as  much  as  lieth  in  yoii,  live  peaceably  with  all 
men,"  the  hearer  is  at  once  reminded  that  though  he 
is  not  responsible  for  the  obstacles  to  peace  existing 
in  other  people,  he  is  accountable  for  all  that  are  in 
himself,  and  he  is  exhorted  to  see  to  it,  that  if  there 
shall  be  any  divisions,  the  causes  of  them  shall  be  in 
others  and  not  in  him. 

Again,   how  often    is  the  sense  of  the   Saviour's 


222  THE  MINISTRY  OF  THE   WORD. 

words  about  the  salt  weakened  by  a  false  emphasis ! 
Most  people  put  the  ^'it"  into  the  shade,  thus,  ''If 
the  salt  have  lost  its  savor,  wherewith  shall  it  be 
salted?"  But  when  the  ''it"  is  made  emphatic,  the 
question  is  immediately  suggested,  "  How  shall  the 
savorless  salt  be  salted  ?"  and  the  fearful  condition  of 
a  Christless  Church  is  vividly  set  before  the  imagina- 
tion of  the  hearer. 

In  the  same  way,  by  a  delicate  intonation,  the  pride 
and  sullenness  of  the  elder  brother  may  be  thus 
brought  out,  "  Lo !  these  many  years  do  /  serve  thee, 
neither  transgressed  /  at  any  time  thy  commandment, 
and  yet  thou  never  gavest  me  a  kid,  that  I  might 
make  merry  with  my  friends ;  but  as  soon  as  this  thy 
son  was  come,  Vv^hich  hath  devoured  thy  living  with 
harlots,  thou  hast  killed  for  Jiini  the  fatted  calf."  And 
the  sharpness  of  the  arrow  aimed  by  Jesus  at  the 
heart  of  the  woman  of  Samaria  will  be  felt  when  we 
read  His  words  thus  :  "  Thou  hast  well  said,  I  have  no 
husband,  for  thou  hast  had  five  husbands,  and  he 
whom  thou  now  hast  is  not  thy  husband  ;'^  in  that 
saidst  thou  truly." 

These  may  seem  to  you  very  little  things,  but,  as 
Michael  Angelo  once  said,  "  they  contribute  to  per- 
fection, and  that  is  not  a  little  thing."  Besides,  their 
apparent  minuteness,  coupled  with  the  undoubted 
light  which  attention  to  them  sheds  upon  the  several 


*  In  the  original  the  oov  is  found,  and  it  is  just  possible  the 
emphasis  may  be  on  "  thy,"  indicating  that  the  man  was  some 
one  else's  husband  ;  but  as  avdpa  is  throughout  emphatic,  I  pre- 
fer the  reading  which  I  have  given  in  the  text. 


THE  CONDUCT  OF  PUBLIC  WORSHIP.  223 

passages,  suggests  the  inference  that  great  attention 
should  be  given  to  preparation  for  the  public  reading 
of  the  Scriptures.  You  ought  to  study  the  passage 
carefully  beforehand,  if  possible,  with  the  original  at 
your  side,  and  you  should,  by  the  help  of  every  ex- 
egetical  appliance  at  your  command,  make  up  your 
mind  as  to  the  meaning  which  it  bears,  so  that  you 
may  indicate  that  perfectly  to  those  who  hear  you. 
Do  not  delude  yourself  into  the  belief  that  it  is  an 
easy  thing  to  read  thus.  In  truth,  there  are  few  things 
so  hard,  and  it  has  come  to  be  much  harder  than 
otherwise  it  might  have  been,  because  preachers 
generally  persist  in  thinking  that  it  is  easy.  For  my- 
self, I  should  be  disposed  to  test  a  man's  pulpit 
efficiency  by  his  reading  of  the  Scriptures,  fully  more 
than  by  any  other  of  the  public  exercises,  for  it  will 
reveal  at  once  whether  he  is  a  reverent  student  of  the 
Bible  ;  whether  he  is  a  careful  exegete  ;  and  whether 
he  is  a  man  of  thoroughness,  carrying  his  principle  and 
preparation  into  everything.  Because  men  usually 
make  this  matter  of  so  little  account,  it  is  a  case  for 
the  application  of  the  Saviour's  words,  "  He  that  is 
faithful  in  that  which  is  least,  is  faithful  also  in  much ; 
and  he  that  is  unjust  in  the  least,  is  unjust  also  in 
much."  When  I  hear  good  reading  of  the  Scriptures, 
I  expect  to  find  that  the  man  is  also  attentive  to  all 
the  details  of  the  ministry,  and  I  am  rarely  disap- 
pointed. 

Do  not  take  it  for  granted,  therefore,  that  you  can 
read  well  enough ;  or  that  you  are  competent  to  give 
effective  utterance  to  any  passage  ad  apcrtiirani  libri. 


224  "^HE   MINISTRY  OF   THE    WORD. 

Extempore  preaching  may  do  for  some,  but  extem- 
pore reading  is  impossible  for  anybody.  Of  course  it 
is  easy  to  name  the  words  correctly,  but  that  is  not 
reading.  That  is  only  accelerated  spelling.  Reading 
is  the  presentation  through  the  voice  of  the  thoughts 
which  the  sacred  author  has  put  into  words :  and  for 
that,  study  is  indispensable.  You  might  as  well  ex- 
pect an  actor  to  give  a  perfect  presentation  of  a  char- 
acter, on  his  first  reading  of  a  play,  as  imagine  that 
a  preacher  can,  without  previous  preparation,  give  a 
proper  rendering  of  any  passage  in  any  author,  how 
much  less  in  a  book  so  many-sided  and  suggestive  as 
the  Bible.  Always  prepare  yourself  for  this  exercise, 
therefore,  and  at  length  your  reading  of  the  Scriptures 
may  be  as  effective  in  the  conversion  of  sinners,  and 
the  edification  of  the  people  of  God,  as  any  sermon. 

But  the  question  is  often  asked.  Ought  the  reader 
to  indulge  in  running  comments?  In  answer,  we  have 
to  say,  that  in  such  a  matter,  very  much  will  depend 
upon  the  qualifications  of  the  minister  and  on  the 
character  of  his  congregation.  Many  men  have  what 
one  may  call  a  happy  knack  of  saying  suggestive 
things,  in  course  of  their  reading  of  the  Scriptures, 
which  amounts  almost  to  genius.  It  is  impossible  to 
listen  to  the  incidental  remarks  of  Mr.  Spurgeon  or 
Dr.  Gumming  on  the  morning  lesson,  without  both 
admiration  and  edification.  But  their  eminence  in  this 
particular  department  has  called  into  existence  a  host 
of  imitators,  whose  success,  to  say  the  least,  is  not  en- 
couraging to   others.     They  aim  at  saying  what    is 


THE  CONDUCT  OF  PUBLIC  WORSHIP.  225 

striking,  and  they  end  in  uttering  some  pompous 
platitude,  or  some  ridiculous  absurdity.  In  their 
efforts  to  barb  the  arrow,  they  only  blunt  it ;  and  under 
the  guise  of  explaining  the  meaning  of  the  sacred 
writer,  they  succeed  admirably  in  taking  off  the  edge 
of  his  words.  Unless,  therefore,  you  have  a  peculiar 
aptitude  for  saying  pithy,  motto-like  things,  which  con- 
dense a  great  deal  into  a  very  few  wordS;  you  had  bet- 
ter let  the  running  commentary,  as  it  is  called,  alone. 
Perhaps,  however,  you  may  be  settled  over  a  people 
who,  from  their  habits  or  their  education,  are  not  able 
to  command  their  attention  for  any  length  of  time 
upon  a  single  subject,  and  in  such  a  case  you  may  find 
it  profitable  to  abridge  the  length  of  the  sermon 
proper,  and  make  a  few  telling  remarks  on  the  passage 
which  you  read.  To  do  that  well,  you  must  make  as 
careful  preparation  for  it  as  for  a  more  formal  expo- 
sition ;  studying  attentively  not  only  the  original 
Scriptures,  but  also  everything  that  the  best  expositors 
at  your  command  have  said  upon  the  section.  A 
good  model  for  such  work  is  furnished  in  Mr.  Spur- 
geon's  "  Treasury  of  David,"  which,  over  and  above 
its  value,  from  its  references  to  the  works  of  others,  is 
beyond  all  price  for  the  illustration  which  it  gives  of 
the  best  mode  of  turning  the  utterances  of  David  to 
practical  and  devotional  account.  Peculiarly  service- 
able, also,  will  be  the  commentary  of  Matthew  Henry, 
especially  in  those  places  where  he  says  ''Note  here  "  — 
for  after  such  an  introduction  you  may  look  for  some 
specimen  of  sanctified  wit,  or  some  nugget  of  heavenly 
wisdom. 

10"' 


226  I^HE  MINISTRY  OF    THE    WORD. 

But  in  making  such  remarks,  do  not  mix  them 
up  indiscriminately  with  the  Word  of  God.  Read 
the  passage  distinctly  and  intelligently,  that  it 
may  stand  clearly  before  the  minds  of  the  people 
in  its  own  unapproachable  sublimity ;  but  be- 
ware of  interjecting  your  comments  parenthetically  in 
such  a  fashion  that  the  hearer,  unless  he  is  already 
familiar  with  the  chapter,  may  not  at  first  be  able  to 
distinguish  what  is  yours  from  what  is  in  the  book. 
Do  not  indulge  in  flippancies,  which  may  destroy  that 
sense  of  reverence  which  ought  ever  to  be  felt  when 
you  are  handling  the  Word  of  God.  And  if  you  have 
no  remark  of  explanation  to  offer,  or  no  inference  of 
a  practical  sort  to  draw,  say  nothing ;  for  comment 
is  valuable  only  when  it  illustrates  the  obscure,  or 
suggests  that  which  might  otherwise  have  been  un- 
thought  of.  God's  Word  can  speak  for  itself,  and 
where  it  is  perfectly  clear,  it  will  be  more  forcible 
without  your  remarks  than  with  them. 

Throughout  my  ministry  in  Liverpool  I  followed 
the  plan  of  accompanying  my  reading  by  an  appendix 
of  comment ;  and  in  that  way,  in  the  course  of  sixteen 
years,  beginning  at  Genesis  I  had  gone  over  the  books 
of  the  Old  Testament  as  far  as  that  of  Ecclesiastes  ; 
but  though  it  was  the  means  of  increasing  my  own 
familiarity  with  the  Scriptures,  and  was  acknowledged 
to  be  both  exceedingly  interesting  and  instructive, 
especially  to  the  young,  yet  as  the  years  advanced,  it 
grew  less  attractive  to  me,  and  when  I  began  my 
labors  in  New  York,  I  left  out  this  feature  of  the  serv- 
ice.    It  broke   in  upon  the  unity  of  the  exercises  as 


THE  CONDUCT  OF  PUBLIC  WORSHIP.  22/ 

a  whole ;  it  amounted  sometimes  in  itself  almost  to 
a  minor  sermon  ;  it  tended  to  protract  the  morning 
services  to  an  undue  length,  and  so,  When  the  oppor- 
tunity of  a  new  pastorate  was  afforded  me,  I  deter- 
mined to  dispense  with  it  altogether. 

So  far  as  my  experience  goes,  therefore,  it  is  not 
decisive  on  either  side.  Here  as  in  other  things  I 
would  not  fetter  you  with  any  Medo-Persic  laws.  Do 
not  make  a  comment  unless  it  is  absolutely  irrepres- 
sible. But  when  you  have  something  that  you  feel 
you  must  say,  say  it,  and  go  on.  Encourage  your 
people  to  have  Bibles  in  their  own  hands  that  they 
may  follow  you  as  you  proceed.  That  was  perhaps 
the  greatest  advantage  which  resulted  from  my  Liver- 
pool practice.  The  members  of  the  congregation 
learned  to  make  the  Word  of  God  a  subject  of  study, 
and  came  prepared  to  note  what  might  be  said.  We 
read  in  course,  and  so  the  morning  lesson  was  in  a 
great  degree  like  the  exercises  of  a  large  Bible-class, 
and  proved  interesting  alike  to  old  and  young. 

But  in  America  the  Bible  is  a  stranger  in  the  pew. 
What  the  reason  for  that  is,  I  cannot  discover ;  yet 
the  effect  is  bad.  It  disposes  the  preacher  to  take 
short  texts  which  his  hearers  may  remember  even  with- 
out looking  for  them  in  the  book.  It  discourages 
him  from  presenting  a  Biblical  argument,  or  making 
any  large  induction  of  passages  for  the  purpose  of 
coming  to  a  Scriptural  conclusion ;  and  especially  it 
puts  a  great  obstacle  in  the  way  of  expository  preach- 
ing. I  would  favor  anything  which  would  remedy 
this  great  evil.      TJie  Bible  must  be  in  t lie  pew,  if  it  is 


228  '^HE  MINISTRY  OF   THE    WORD. 

to  keep  its  place  in  the  pulpit.  Wherever  you  may- 
be settled,  make  an  early  request  that  your  people 
will  bring  with  them  their  copies  of  the  Word  of 
God ;  then  see  you  to  it,  that  they  make  good  use  of 
them  when  they  do  bring  them. 

"  To  the  law  and  to  the  testimony,  if  they  speak 
not  according  to  this  word,  it  is  because  they  have  no 
light  in  them."  ^'  Seek  ye  out  of  the  book  of  the 
Lord,  and  read."  ''  Search  the  Scriptures."  "  Give 
attendance  to  reading."  These  are  the  commands  of 
Him  who  gave  the  book,  and  everything  which  will 
stimulate  to  their  obedience  is  to  be  welcomed  and 
encouraged. 

In  a  Scottish  congregation  few  sounds  are  more  in- 
spiring to  the  preacher  than  the  rustle  of  the  leaves  of 
hundreds  of  Bibles,  as  he  bids  his  hearers  turn  with 
him  to  a  passage  which  has  an  important  bearing  on 
his  argument,  and  the  corner  pressed  down,  as  he 
finishes  his  remarks,  indicates  that  the  owner  of  the 
book  means  to  study  it  in  the  leisure  of  his  closet. 
When  you  can  get  your  people  to  use  the  Word  of 
God  in  that  way,  both  in  the  sanctuary  and  the  home, 
as  the  testimony  to  regulate  their  faith  and  the  law 
to  rule  their  lives,  your  ministry  will  be  a  success. 
And,  if  you  be  wise,  you  will  endeavor  so  to  shape 
your  public  reading  of  it,  that  whether  with  com- 
ment, or  without,  it  may,  with  your  discourse,  con- 
tribute to  the  formation  and  fostering  of  such  a  habit. 


LECTURE    X. 

THE    CONDUCT    OF    PUBLIC    WORSHIP — PRAISE    AND 
PRAYER. 


LECTURE    X. 

THE  CONDUCT  OF    PUBLIC  WORSHIP — PRAISE   AND 
PRAYER. 

rriHE  subject  of  public  praise  is  so  environed  with 
-■-  controversies,  that  one  cannot  reach  it  without 
passing  through  them.  But  a  few  firm  steps  will 
carry  us  safely  over  all  burning  questions,  and  the 
more  quickly  we  take  them,  we  shall  be  the  less  in- 
jured by  the  flames. 

Some  insist  that  we  shall  confine  ourselves  in  this 
exercise  to  the  use  of  inspired  productions;  yet,  in 
the  matter  of  prayer,  which  is  the  nearest  of  kin  to 
praise,  they  have  no  objections  to  join  with  a  brother 
who  is  employing  extempore  language  ;  while  in  the 
metrical  versions  of  the  psalms  which  they  sing,  there 
is  very  frequently  a  marring  of  the  original  grandeur 
of  the  odes  by  the  imperfections,  and  even  errors  of 
the  rhymer.  So,  while  repudiating  merely  human 
utterances,  they  are  compelled  to  accept  them  after  all. 

Others  have  conscientious  objections  to  the  em- 
ployment of  instrumental  music  in  the  leading  of 
"  the  service  of  song  in  the  house  of  the  Lord  ;  "  but 
while  we  must  ever  respect  a  conviction  which  is 
maintained  from  the  determination  to  be  true  to  God, 
it  does  not  seem  to  have  struck  the  friends  who  hold 
this  view,  that  to  be  consistent,  they  ought  to  discard 

(231) 


232  THE  MINISTRY  OF  THE   WORD. 

the  use  of  the  music-book  and  of  set  tunes,  as  well  as 
that  of  the  organ.  In  the  music-book  the  notes  are 
in  symbol,  and  address  themselves  to  the  eyes  of  the 
initiated ;  by  the  organ  the  notes  are  produced  in 
sound,  and  address  themselves  to  the  ears  of  all. 
Thus  there  is  no  difference  in  principle  between  the 
two,  while,  as  appealing  more  powerfully  to  the 
people  as  a  whole,  and  giving  them  a  greater  degree 
of  assistance,  the  advantage  is  unquestionably  on  the 
side  of  the  instrument. 

Moreover,  in  the  employment  of  a  precentor,  the 
friends  who  have  these  conscientious  scruples  are 
hiring  an  organ.  No  doubt  the  man  may  be  a  good, 
godly  Christian,  but  he  is  not  engaged  by  the  church 
because  of  that  ;  he  is  employed  because  he  has  an 
organ,  and  can  play  well  upon  it  ;  and  if  his  organ 
gets  out  of  repair — in  other  words,  if  he  loses  his  voice 
— he  is  dispensed  with,  and  another  is  employed  in  his 
stead.  So  the  logical  result  of  the  argument  is,  that 
if  it  is  wrong  to  use  an  organ,  then  neither  set  tunes 
nor  a  precentor  should  be  tolerated,  and  each  wor- 
shiper should  be  encouraged  to  "  make  a  joyful 
noise  "  at  his  own  sweet  will. 

It  is  true,  indeed,  that  the  larynx  is  an  instrument 
made  by  God,  while  the  organ  is  a  human  contrivance  ; 
but  if  it  be  wrong  to  employ  the  latter  for  the  assist- 
ance of  the  former  in  singing  a  hymn,  then  it  must  be 
equally  wrong  to  avail  one's  self  of  the  human  con- 
trivance of  spectacles  for  the  help  of  the  divinely- 
constructed  organ  of  the  eye  in  reading  it.  So,  if 
the  question  were   one  of  argument  alone,  it  is  easy 


THE  CONDUCT  OF  PUBLIC  WORSHIP.  233 

to  reduce  the  whole  of  these  objections  to  absurd- 
ities. 

Others  still  are  decidedly  opposed  to  the  employ- 
ment of  choirs  who  shall  sing,  at  stated  times,  apart 
from  the  congregation.  They  say  that  singing  is 
simply  and  only  the  expression  of  the  soul's  emotions 
unto  God,  and  that  it  is  never  to  be  employed  for  the 
purpose  of  producing  an  impression  on  the  heart  of 
the  worshiper.  But,  in  the  consciousness  of  every 
one  who  joins  in  the  exercise  of  praise,  there  is  un- 
deniably a  very  strong  reflex  effect  produced,  and  if 
that  be  so,  it  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  it  was  a  part 
of  the  design  of  God  in  encouraging  His  people  to 
offer  praise,  that  such  an  effect  should  be  produced. 
When  Luther  sung  "  Ein  feste  burg,"  he  was  inspirited 
thereby  for  conflict,  and  they  are  the  noblest  heroes  in 
the  battle  of  life,  who  enter  on  it,  and  maintain  it  to 
the  music  of  a  psalm.  Now  the  reflex  influence  being 
proper  enough  in  itself,  may  occasionally  be  made  the 
direct  object,  and  it  is  that  which,  in  theory  at  least, 
churches  seek  to  do  through  the  agency  of  the  choir. 

The  singing  of  the  Gospel,  as  in  the  case  of  Mr. 
Sankey,  may  be  as  much  blessed  to  the  saving  of 
men's  souls  as  the  preaching  of  it ;  nay,  as  the  saintly 
Herbert  has  said  : 

"  A  verse  may  catch  him  who  a  sermon  flies, 
And  turn  delight  into  a  sacrifice." 

All  that  is  needed  is  that  the  members  of  the  choir 
should  be  themselves  in  sympathy  with  the  message 
which  they  sing,  and  that  they  should  seek,  as   relig- 


234  "^HE  MINISTR  Y  OF   THE   WORD. 

iously  as  the  minister  in  the  pulpit,  to  forget  them- 
selves, and  give  up  all  effort  at  display,  in  the  absorb- 
ing desire  to  glorify  Christ.  Given  a  choir  of  that 
saintly  sort,  and  the  singing  of  its  members  will  be  a 
joy  to  the  minister  and  a  blessing  to  the  church. 
But  if  the  singers  be  musicians  and  nothing  more — men 
and  women  who  are  anxious  only  to  let  it  be  heard 
how  they  can  perform — then  their  presence  will  be  an 
intrusion  in  the  sanctuary,  and  their  influence  will 
damp  all  enthusiasm,  and  chill  every  ardent  feeling, 
alike  in  the  preacher  and  his  people. 

In  themselves  all  these  matters  are  of  little  mo- 
ment. They  become  of  importance  only  as  they  are 
pushed  unduly  into  prominence.  They  are  not  worth 
a  quarrel  or  a  controversy.  Therefore,  when  you  set- 
tle as  a  pastor  over  any  church,  do  not  attempt  rashly 
to  alter  any  existing  order  of  things  in  musical  mat- 
ters. Accept  the  situation  and  make  the  very  best 
of  it  for  the  glory  of  God  and  the  edification  of  the 
people.  ''  Art  thou  called  "  to  a  church  without  an 
organ,  ^'  care  not  for  it ;"  but  if  thou  mayest  obtain 
one,  ''  use  it  rather."  Only  remember  this,  that  noth- 
ing will  more  interfere  with  your  usefulness  or  mar 
your  happiness,  than  the  stirring  up  of  a  musical  con- 
troversy. Let  well  alone.  The  best  all  round  is  very 
often  lost  by  attempting  to  have  the  absolute  best  in 
any  one  department.  In  the  organ  itself,  if  eveiy 
note  be  separately  tuned  up  to  the  scale,  discord  will 
be  the  effect  when  one  attempts  to  play  upon  it,  for, 
as  it  is  an  imperfect  instrument,  most  of  the  fifths 
must  be  left  somewhat  flat  and  the  few  others  made 


THE  CONDUCT  OF  PUBLIC  WORSHIP.  235 

somewhat  sharp,  the  octaves  alone  being  put  in  per- 
fect unison.  So,  if  we  attempt  to  bring  the  music 
in  the  church  up  to  that  point  of  perfection  which  we 
think  it  ought  to  reach,  we  shall  most  likely  put  the 
whole  church  out  of  tune.  We  must  make  the  best 
of  things  as  a  whole,  and  be  content  sometimes  with 
a  little  less  in  one  department  in  order  that  we  may- 
have  harmony  in  all.*  Peace  in  a  church  is  essential 
to  progress.  The  dew  is  not  shed  forth  in  storm,  but 
in  the  gentle  calm  of  the  Summer's  eve  it  distils  on 
every  blade  of  grass.  So  the  Spirit  comes  not  down 
amid  controversy  and  debate,  but  where  brethren  are 
*'  dwelling  together  in  unity,"  there  ''  the  Lord  com- 
mandeth  the  blessing,  even  life  for  evermore."  No  or- 
gan that  was  ever  built,  no  choir  that  ever  sang,  is  for  a 
moment  to  be  preferred  to  those  higher  matters  of 
spiritual  life,  for  the  fostering  of  which  the  Church 
of  Christ  exists.  ''  The  life  is  more  than  meat,  and 
the  body  than  raiment."  The  church  is  more 
than  music,  and  it  is  the  most  arrant  folly  for  either 
minister  or  music  committee  to  imperil  the  welfare  of 
souls  for  a  mere  question  of  taste.  A  church  in  re- 
gard to  all  such  matters  should  be  like  Wordsworth's 


*  Let  me  direct  attention  here  to  Mrs.  Alfred  Gatty's  very  per- 
tinent little  story,  entitled  "  Imperfect  Instruments,''  contained 
in  the  fourth  series  of  her  beautiful  "  Parables  from  Nature."  I 
am  indebted  to  it  for  the  illustration  taken  from  the  organ  in  the 
text,  but  the  story  itself  is  one  of  the  most  wholesome  and  sug- 
gestive Lectures  on  Pastoral  Theology  which  I   have  ever  read. 


236  THE  MINISTR  V  OF  TIIE    i:  ORD. 

cloud,  "  which  moveth  all  together  when  it  moves  at 
all."  So  if  you  desire  any  change,  wait  till  you  can 
carry  the  great  body  of  the  people  along  with  you, 
and  meanwhile  make  the  best  of  what  you  have. 

But  now,  as  to  the  fostering  of  congregational  praise. 
Let  me  suppose  that  you  are  the  .pastor  of  a  church, 
in  which,  as  in  the  Broadway  Tabernacle,  the  com- 
promise exists  that  the  members  of  the  choir  sing  by 
themselves  a  chant  and  an  anthem,  while  at  each  service 
two  hymns  are  sung  by  the  congregation.  Practically 
in  such  a  case,  you  will  have  little  to  say  in  the  selec- 
tion of  the  anthems,  and  yet,  if  you  care  to  keep 
}"Ourself  en  rapport  v/ith  the  leader  and  the  members 
of  the  choir,  your  influence  will  be  felt,  even  w^hen 
you  do  not  seem  to  be  exerting  it.  And  you  ought 
to  care  to  keep  yourself  thus  in  sympathy  with  them. 
If  you  regard  them  as  hirelings  merely — that  will 
lead  to  the  manifestation  by  them  of  the  hireling 
spirit.  But  if  you  have  a  frank  and  generous  confer- 
ence with  them  on  the  subject  of  praise ;  if  you  give 
them  to  understand  that  you  look  upon  them  as  your 
fellow-laborers,  and  that  you  desire  to  have  them  al- 
ways in  unison  with  you  ;  above  all,  if  you  indicate  to 
them  that  you  wish  them  to  sing  for  the  glory  and 
in  the  service  of  Christ ;  then,  from  my  own  experi- 
ence, I  am  warranted  to  say,  that  you  may  have  the 
highest  happiness  in  their  co-operation,  and,  even,  if 
some  of  them  may  have  been  unconverted  when  they 
came  to  you,  the  effect  of  your  fellowship  on  them 
may  be  to  lead  them  to  the  Lord.  If  we  are  to  have 
choirs  at  all,  then  we  shall  degrade  and  demoralize 


THE  CONDUCT  OF  PUBLIC  WORSHIP.  23/ 

them  by  speaking  of  them  as  "  necessary  evils,"  or 
by  giving  any  countenance  to  the  idea  that  they  and 
the  ministers  are  ^^  natural  enemies."  Let  it  be  your 
earnest  endeavor  to  gain  the  confidence  and  secure 
the  affection  of  the  members  of  your  choir,  and  when 
you  have  accomplished  that,  everything  will  be  easy ; 
for  then  your  advice  will  be  sought  with  deference, 
and  carried  out  with  thoroughness,  when  in  other  cir- 
cumstances your  request  would  be  resisted  as  dicta- 
tion. Your  power  over  the  choir  should  be  that  of  in- 
fluence, rather  than  authority ;  for  influence  moves 
men  and  women  to  yield,  while  authority  will  dispose 
them  to  resist.  A  few  drops  of  oil  rightly  applied, 
will  stop  the  creaking  of  a  wheel  which  might  jangle 
the  nerves  of  multitudes ;  and  other  people's  de- 
meanor toward  you  is  the  mirror  in  which  your  treat- 
ment of  them  is  reflected  back  upon  yourself. 

But  now  in  regard  to  the  choice  of  your  hymns. 
Let  your  selection  be  restricted  within  manageable 
limits.  I  have  a  profound  conviction  that  the  great 
size  of  our  hymn-books  is  helping  to  kill  our  congre- 
gational praise.  No  church  is  able  as  a  whole  multi- 
tude to  sing  equally  well  such  a  number  of  tunes  as 
are  needed  for  the  rendering  of  the  thirteen  or  fifteen 
hundred  hymns  of  which  our  popular  collections  con- 
sist. The  really  good  hymns  in  our  language  are  not 
more  than  three  hundred,  and  the  first  thing  you  will 
have  to  do,  will  be  to  make  your  own  smaller  hymn- 
book  out  of  the  larger  ones  now  in  existence.  Mark 
the  tunes  that  go  well  in  the  great  congregation,  and 
stick  fo  them  as  closely  as  possible.     If  at  any  time 


238  THE  MINISTRY  OF  THE   WORD. 

you  give  out  one  that  drags,  or  is  left  to  be  sung  by 
the  choir  alone,  put  a  beacon  over  it,  and  never  give 
it  out  again.  Thus  in  a  comparatively  short  time,  you 
will  by  a  species  of  "  natural  selection  "  have  made 
for  yourself  a  hymn-book  within  the  hymn-book ; 
and  without  saying  a  syllable  on  the  subject,  you 
will  have  developed  a  wonderful  enthusiasm  for  con- 
gregational singing. 

Four  years  ago  the  singing  at  the  Tabernacle  was 
anything  but  congregational.  Still  I  made  no  public 
remark  upon  it.  I  waited  patiently  for  nine  months, 
until  a  new  hymn-book,  by  the  vote  of  the  church,  was 
introduced.  Then  I  proceeded  on  the  principle  which 
I  have  just  described  ;  refusing  the  most  appropriate 
hymn,  if  it  were  set  to  a  tune  which  the  people  could 
not  or  would  not  sing,  and  contenting  myself  with 
one  whose  sentiment  was  less  pertinent  to  my  theme, 
if  only  the  tune  was  such  as  evoked  enthusiasm.  The 
result  has  been,  that  the  Tabernacle  singing  has  been 
often  remarked  on  by  strangers  for  its  heartiness  and 
universality,  while  by  the  people  themselves  it  is  posi- 
tively delighted  in.  There  is  no  need  here  of  repeated 
exhortation.  Nothing  is  to  me  more  repulsive  than 
the  efforts  of  a  minister  to  ''  whip  up  "  the  singing,  by 
continually  entreating  the  people  to  exert  themselves, 
or  by  the  impertinent  interjection  of  similar  inter- 
ludes of  insistance  between  the  stanzas.  The  thing 
is  largely  in  the  pastor's  own  hand,  and  in  the  manner 
which  I  have  sketched  he  may  without  a  word  accom- 
plish all  he  desires.  For  the  people  love  to  sing ;  and 
they  will  always  sing  when  they  can ;  but  when  they 


THE  CONDUCT  OF  PUBLIC  WORSHIP.  239 

are  asked  to  join  in  tunes  which  have  an  intricate  or 
disagreeable  character,  and  have  "  no  unison  with  the 
Creator's  praise,"  they  prefer  to  be  silent.  The  less 
you  speak  about  it  the  better,  if  you  will  only  wisely 
provide  for  its  general  enjoyment. 

Two  or  three  other  matters  here,  minute  though 
they  be,  require  attention.  Read  the  hymns  distinct- 
ly and  appreciatively  as  you  give  them  out.  That 
which  is  worth  singing  well  is  worth  reading  well. 
If  you  are  careless  or  indifferent  about  the  latter,  the 
people  will  be  so  also  about  the  former.  Do  not  name 
the  hymn  and  sit  down,  as  if  you  were  in  haste  to  get 
through  the  entire  service.  In  public  worship  nothing 
should  seem  to  be  huddled  up.  ''  He  that  believeth 
shall  not  make  haste."  And  if  you  believe  that  God 
is  in  the  midst  of  the  people,  you  will  be  reverentially 
calm.  Many  leap  over  the  reading  of  the  lesson  and 
the  announcing  of  the  hymns  as  if  they  were  riding 
a  steeple-chase,  and  eager  only  to  get  as  soon  as  possi- 
ble to  the  benediction.  Take  time,  and  by  your  read- 
ing prepare  the  minds  of  the  people  for  turning  the 
poetr>'  into  praise. 

Then  rise  with  the  people  and  sing  with  them  your- 
self. Do  not  give  them  the  idea  that  you  regard  the 
praise  as  only  furnishing  a  breathing-time  for  you  ; 
but  give  yourself  up  to  the  privilege  of  the  moment, 
and  let  the  hymn  carry  your  heart  also  up  with  it  to 
Him  to  whom  it  ascends.  Let  no  sexton,  or  usher,  or 
deacon,  or  any  one  else,  presume  to  come  up  into  the 
pulpit  with  any  announcement,  or  to  make  any  com- 
munication to  you  during  the  praise,  any  more  than 


240  THE  MINISTRY  OF    THE    WORD. 

during  the  prayer.  And  if  you  have  a  brother  with 
you  in  the  pulpit,  do  not  indulge  in  conversation 
with  him  while  the  people  are  singing.  Example 
here  is  better  than  precept,  and  the  sight  of  your  in- 
terest in  the  song  will  lead  those  who  might  other- 
wise have  been  careless  to  join  in  with  you.  You  are 
a  worshiper  as  well  as  each  of  them,  and  no  stronger 
obligation  rests  on  them  than  on  you  to  take  part  in 
the  praise. 

Finally  remember,  that  the  best  praise  comes  after 
a  living  sermon. 

A  bishop  visiting  a  new  church,  was  asked  by  some 
one  where  he  would  advise  that  the  stove  should  be 
put,  and  he  is  reported  to  have  replied  :  *'  Tell  your 
rector  to  put  the  stove  in  the  pulpit."  So  one  of  the 
chief  factors  in  the  production  of  congregational  sing- 
ing is  an  enthusiastic  preacher. 

There  is  nothing  so  overpowering  to  me  in  the 
public  services  of  the  Sabbath,  as  the  singing  of  the 
last  hymn.  It  gathers  up  into  itself  the  whole  inspi- 
ration of  the  occasion,  and  sends  pastor  and  people 
forth  with  the  highest  and  holiest  aspirations.  If  that 
service  of  praise  drags,  you  may  generally  conclude 
that  you  have  failed  in  your  sermon  ;  but  if  it  rises 
into  the  fervor  of  a  devout  enthusiasm  and  stimulates 
every  one  to  unite  in  its  strain,  tJiat  is  the  attestation 
that  the  hearers  have  been  benefited,  and  the  proph- 
ecy that  they  will  begin  to  live  out  what  you  have 
been  enforcing. 

But  it  is  time  that  we  should  say  something  about 


THE  CONDUCT  OF  PUBLIC  WORSHIP. 


241 


public  prayer.  That  is  the  most  difficult  as  it  is  the 
most  important  part  of  the  exercises  of  the  sanctu- 
ary ;  and  in  churches  like  ours,  where  no  formal  liturgy 
is  used,  it  does  not  always  receive  the  attention  which 
it  demands.  Every  earnest  minister  will  tell  you  that 
the  prayer  gives  the  tone  to  the  entire  service.  It  is 
the  key  of  the  position.  It  holds  in  itself  the  success 
or  the  failure  of  the  day.  He  who  is  fervent  and  be- 
lieving in  his  petitions,  laying  hold  of  God's  strength, 
will  be  mighty  also  with  men  ;  while  the  formal 
suppliant  will  be  but  a  feeble  preacher. 

But  more  even  than  the  sermon  the  prayer  requires 
preparation.  It  needs  the  culture  of  the  heart.  The 
devotion  of  the  pulpit  must  have  its  roots  back  in  the 
closet.  The  habit  of  the  life  will  fill  a  reservoir  from 
which  the  exercises  of  the  sanctuary  will  be  easily 
supplied.  Great  advantage  will  be  derived  from  the 
perusal  on  the  Lord's  day  morning  of  some  portions 
of  the  psalms,  or  other  devotional  sections  of  the 
Word  of  God.  That  will  attune  the  spirit  into  har- 
mony with  the  engagements  of  God's  house,  and  put 
it  into  a  devotional  frame.  Attention  may  be  profit- 
ably given,  also,  to  the  prayers  of  Paul  which  are  ever 
and  anon  welling  up  in  his  epistles  ;  while  the  closet 
writings  of  such  uninspired  authors  as  Augustine, 
A'Kempis,  Leighton,  Tholuck,  and  others  may  be 
studied  with  great  profit. 

Combined  with  this  preparation  of  the  heart,  there 
must  be  a  deliberate  consideration  of  the  circum- 
stances and  necessities  of  our  fellow-worshipers.  On 
the  morning  of  the  Sabbath  throw  yourself  back  on  the 
II 


242 


THE  MINISTRY  OF   THE    WORD. 


experiences  of  the  week.  You  have  been  mingling 
with  your  people.  You  have  seen  the  backsliding  of 
some,  and  the  conflict  of  others ;  the  anguish  of  the 
bereaved  and  the  depression  of  the  sick ;  the  sorrow 
of  the  heavy-laden  and  the  weariness  of  those  who  have 
"  forgotten  their  resting-place.  "  You  know  thus  the 
secrets  of  many  homes  into  which  you  have  been  wel- 
comed as  an  elder  brother ;  and  so  the  stream  of  your 
devotion  will  flow  through  them  all,  and  sweep  away 
with  it  every  care,  and  trial,  and  distress,  carrying  all 
on  to  the  ocean  of  God's  loving-kindness.  Thus  trust 
and  peace,  and  a  sense  of  the  most  delightful  relief, 
will  come  into  the  hearts  of  those  whose  prayers  you 
are  leading,  and  as  they  raise  their  heads  they  will 
exclaim,  "  It  is  a  good  thing  to  draw  near  to  God." 

Furthermore,  we  must  have  in  ourselves  an  un- 
wavering conviction  of  the  profit  of  prayer.  "  He  that 
Cometh  unto  God  must  believe  that  He  is,  and  that  He 
is  the  rewarder  of  them  who  diligently  seek  Him." 
The  promises  of  God  must  be  clearly  before  our 
minds.  We  must  have  a  sense  of  security  in  building 
our  expectations  of  an  answer  on  the  merits  and  medi- 
ation of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  And  all  through,  we 
must  stir  ourselves  up  to  take  hold  of  God. 

Now,  to  attain  all  these  things,  we  ought  to  have, 
immediately  before  the  public  services,  a  season  of 
uninterrupted  privacy.  It  is  the  habit,  in  many  places, 
for  deacons,  or  members  of  committee,  or  officials  of 
one  sort  or  another,  to  crowd  into  the  vestry  or  study 
for  the  ten  minutes  preceding  the  commencement  of 
the  worship,  and   among  them   all  the  mind  and  the 


THE  CONDUCT  OF  PUBLIC  WORSHIP.  243 

heart  of  the  pastor  are  distracted  by  requests  con- 
cerning notices  or  other  matters  equally  trivial.  This 
is  a  serious  evil.  It  springs,  for  the  most  part,  from 
the  merest  thoughtlessness,  and  a  gentle  hint  lovingly 
given  will  commonly  be  enough  to  rectify  it.  But 
rectified  it  must  be,  if  your  prayers  are  to  have  that 
peacefulness  which  is  born  of  trust  and  meditation. 
Hedge  yourselfin,  therefore,  as  far  as  possible  from  all 
intrusion,  before  you  enter  the  pulpit.  Take  time  to 
look  all  around  your  people,  to  commune  with  your 
own  heart,  and  to  ponder  what  special  things  you 
have  to  carry  with  you  to  the  mercy-seat.  You  will 
not  go  on  an  errand  to  a  fellow  man  without  pausing 
a  little  to  consider  what  and  how  you  are  to  speak  to 
him.  But  how  much  more  necessary  does  that  pre- 
meditation become,  when  you  are  the  spokesman  of 
your  people  before  the  throne  of  God  ?  When  Peter 
wanted  to  raise  Tabitha,  he  put  all  the  mourners  out 
of  the  upper  chamber,  that  he  might  gather  himself 
up  for  the  great  prayer-effort  that  was  before  him. 
And  in  the  same  way  we  should  clear  our  room  of  all 
intruders  for  some  time  before  the  service,  that  we 
may  brace  ourselves  for  the  great  spiritual  exertion 
that  we  are  so  soon  to  make.  For  prayer  is  exertion. 
When  it  is  real,  it  is  no  child's  play.  It  calls  every 
faculty  of  the  soul  into  strenuous  operation.  ''  It  is  the 
joint  act  of  the  will  and  the  understanding,  impelled 
by  the  affections  ;  "*  hence  it  is  an  exhausting  labor  ; 
and  the  more  thoroughly  we  enter  into  it,  the  more 


*  Canon  Liddon's  "  Some  Elements  of  Religion,"  pp.  174,  175. 


244  "^^^  MINISTR  V  OF  THE   WORD. 

does  it  wear  upon  us.  Even  when  he  is  making  no 
physical  effort  that  will  account  for  such  a  result,  you 
will  see  the  beads  of  perspiration  standing  on  the 
forehead  of  the  earnest  minister  as  he  is  engaged  in 
prayer ;  and  he  knows  nothing,  as  yet,  of  the  respon- 
sibilities of  the  preacher's  office,  who  has  not  dis- 
covered that  the  most  intense,  as  well  as  the  most 
important,  of  his  labors  is  that  of  public  prayer.  Keep 
yourself  up  for  it,  therefore,  and  let  no  petty  details 
of  parish  work  come  in  to  steal  away  your  attention 
and  devour  your  strength.  The  last  ten  or  fifteen 
minutes  in  the  vestry  should  be  sacredly  and  unre- 
servedly your  own. 

So  much  has  been  said  by  others  on  the  different 
parts  of  which  public  prayer  is  composed,  that  I 
shall  not  enter  at  all  into  the  consideration  of  them, 
save  to  remark  that,  in  my  judgment,  the  true  place 
for  adoration  is  in  the  opening  hymn.  The  ascrip- 
tion of  honor  and  glory  to  God  for  what  He  is  and 
for  what  He  has  done,  is  more  fittingly  sung  than 
said.  I  would  relegate  all  that,  therefore,  to  the 
praise,  and  find  expression  for  it  in  some  prose  chant 
from  the  psalms,  or  some  sweet  lyric  like  that  of  Sir 
Robert  Grant.*     But  with  that   exception,  I  would 


*  It  begins  with  this  stanza  : 

"  O  worship  the  King 

All  glorious  above  ; 
O  gratefully  sing 

His  power  and  His  love  ; 
Our  shield  and  Defender, 

The  ancient  of  days, 
Pavilioned  in  splendor 

And  girded  with  praise." 


THE  CONDUCT  OF  PUBLIC  WORSHIP.  245 

seek  to  find  a  place  for  all  the  parts  into  which  prayer 
has  been  divided,  and  to  <gvj^  due  attention  to  thanks- 
giving, confession,  petition,  and  intercession. 

In  the  offering  of  these  several  constituent  ele- 
ments of  the  one  sacrifice  of  prayer,  certain  general 
rules  ought  to  be  carefully  observed. 

In  the  first  place,  public  prayer  should  be  common, 
and  not  minutely  individual.  The  preacher  should 
not  obtrude  his  own  personal  experiences  and  neces- 
sities, and  ignore  the  great  general  wants  of  the  con- 
gregation as  a  whole.  His  prayer  should  not  be  a 
pious  soliloquy  which  he  simply  permits  his  people 
to  overhear.  Neither  should  it  be  a  highly-wrought 
rhapsody  in  which  the  imagination  of  the  speaker 
soars  to  such  a  height  that  the  average  worshiper 
cannot  accompany  him.  He  must  lead  the  people  to 
the  throne  of  grace,  and  give  utterance  for  them 
there  to  the  desires  which  in  them  are  yearning  for 
expression. 

It  is  not  easy  always  to  strike  the  happy  medium 
between  a  generality  so  vague  as  to  be  almost  mean- 
ingless, and  a  minuteness  so  particular  as  to  be  all 
but  unintelligible  to  the  majority  of  our  fellow-sup- 
pliants. But  the  great  outstanding  needs  of  a  com- 
pany of  men  and  women  are  easily  recognizable  by 
us,  and  these  must  not  be  overlooked  in  our  eager- 
ness to  get  out  of  the  beaten  track  and  have  origi- 
nality in  prayer.  How  has  the  track  come  to  be 
so  beaten  ?  Simply  because  so  many  have  been  re- 
quired to  take  it,  and  so,  if  we  leave  it,  it  is  possible  that 
we  may  be  left  to  walk  alone.    What  is  needed  in  your 


246  THE   MINISTRY  OF   THE    WORD. 

supplications,  is  not  that  you  should  ask  things  that 
nobody  else  had  thought  of,  but  that  you  should 
carry  up  on  your  words  the  cares  and  troubles,  the 
burdens  and  anxieties  that  are  lying  heavy  and  un- 
spoken on  your  people's  hearts,  and  leave  them  with 
God.  Nor  while  you  do  that,  need  you  be  afraid  that 
you  are  bringing  the  ordinance  into  contempt  ;  for 
when  we  are  dealing  with  God,  the  simple  rises  into 
the  sublime,  and  there  is  nothing  in  all  human  litera- 
ture more  elevating  and  ennobling  in  its  character 
and  influence  than  that  exquisite  litany,  which  in 
words  of  tenderness  and  unadorned  beauty  gives 
voice  to  the  common  wants  of  the  great  congrega- 
tion. Let  it  be  your  aim,  therefore,  so  to  shape  your 
utterances  that  no  one  in  the  congregation  may  have 
the  feeling  that  there  has  been  nothing  said  to  which 
he  can  add  Amen.  The  most  exquisite  things  that 
human  tongue  can  articulate  will  be  out  of  place  in 
your  prayers,  if  they  meet  nobody's  necessity.  The 
true  eloquence  of  supplication  is  its  appropriateness, 
and  to  have  that  it  must  be  common.  ''  O  Lord," 
said  a  pious  lady  after  a  public  prayer,  in  which  the 
leader  seemed  to  go  round  the  world,  but  to  forget 
the  purpose  for  which  the  worshipers  were  assembled, 
"  grant  me  all  that  person  did  not  ask."  Let  us  be 
warned  by  such  a  case  against  the  danger  of  forget- 
ting that  when  in  the  pulpit  we  lead  the  prayers  of 
others  we  must  merge  self  in  the  community,  and 
unite  in  asking  those  things  which  we  all  alike  require. 
In  the  second  place,  the  prayers  of  the  sanctuary 
should  be  petitionary,  and  not  merely  meditative  or 


THE  CONDUCT  OF  PUBLIC  WORSHIP. 


247 


hortatory.  Meditation  is  not  prayer,  though  it  is 
essential  as  a  preparation  for  it.  Pious  reflections, 
therefore,  however  much  they  may  be  valued  by  us 
in  the  closet,  should  be  kept  out  of  our  public  prayers. 
The  place  for  them  is  in  the  sermon,  which  now  and 
then  may  very  profitably  take  the  form  of  a  devo- 
tional meditation.  Prayer  is  a  direct  address  to  God, 
and  any  reflex  action  of  the  soul  as  it  muses  on  some 
phase  of  its  own  experience,  or  moralizes  from  it,  is 
out  of  place  in  such  an  exercise.  But  if  that  be  true 
of  meditation,  it  is  still  more  evidently  so  of  exhorta- 
tion. Our  public  prayers  ought  not  to  be  "  oblique 
sermons,"  which  are  really  addressed  to  the  people, 
though  nominally  uttered  to  God.  Our  supplications 
should  ascend  perpendicularly  ;  we  pervert  them  alto- 
gether when  we  endeavor  to  make  them  effective 
horizontally.  I  say  not,  indeed,  that  when  prayer  is 
sincerely  offered  in  the  pulpit,  it  will  not  have  a  bene- 
ficial influence  on  the  heart  of  the  worshiper,  for  the 
contrary  is  a  matter  of  too  common  experience  to  be 
denied.  But  that  is  an  incidental  result,  and  so  soon 
as  the  production  of  that  becomes  the  principal  aim 
of  the  minister  his  supplications  cease  to  be  prayers, 
and  degenerate  into  very  feeble  and  indirect  dis- 
courses. Do  not  put  a  whole  system  of  theology 
into  your  supplications.  When  a  minister  whom  I 
knew  in  Scotland  had,  under  the  name  of  prayer,  in- 
dulged for  ten  or  fifteen  minutes  in  a  doctrinal  disser- 
tation, making  an  old  sermon  serve  in  place  of  peti- 
tion, a  venerable  Christian  matron  was  overheard  to 
say  as  he  concluded,  ''  O  if  he  had  just  asked  the 


248  THE   MINISTRY  OF   THE    WORD. 

Lord  for  something !  "  That  story,  told  to  me  in  an 
early  stage  of  my  pastorate,  made  a  deep  impression 
on  my  heart,  and  there  are  few  things  now  of  which 
I  am  more  intolerant  than  a  lesson  in  theology  given 
in  the  guise  of  a  prayer. 

Be  on  your  guard,  also,  against  insinuating  into 
your  prayers  the  reproof  of  some  irregularity  or  im- 
morality of  which  some  one  of  your  hearers  has  been 
guilty.  That  is  cowardice  and  irreverence,  but  it  is 
not  prayer.  Remember  that  when  you  engage  in  the 
exercise  of  prayer  in  the  pulpit,  you  are  there  not  to 
ventilate  your  personal  aversions,  or  to  give  indirect 
expression  to  your  individual  grudges  and  grievances, 
but  to  be  the  mouth-piece  of  the  desires  of  the  peo- 
ple unto  God.  Keep  your  admonitions  for  private 
dealing  with  the  offender,  and  let  your  doctrinal  in- 
structions go  into  your  sermons.  The  essence  of 
prayer  is  asking.  The  thanksgiving  is  the  acknowl- 
edgment of  answers  already  received,  and  the  confes- 
sion is  the  preparation  for  the  presenting  of  new  peti- 
tions ;  but  the  unloading  of  the  heart  in  earnest,  be- 
lieving supplication,  is  the  great  thing  that  you  should 
seek  to  accomplish  for  yourself  and  for  your  people 
in  your  public  approaches  to  the  throne  of  grace. 
*'  Ask  and  ye  shall  receive."  "  Ye  have  not  because 
ye  ask  not."  Let  us  only  remember  these  and  kin- 
dred passages  when  we  rise  to  lead  our  people's 
prayers,  and  then  our  aspirations  will  shape  them- 
selves into  prayers  which  will  be  prayers  indeed. 

But,  passing  to  another  particular,  I  remark  that 
our  public  petitions  should  be  real,  and  not  artificial. 


THE  CONDUCT  OF  PUBLIC  WORSHIP.  249 

We  should  ask  what  we  and  the  people  truly  desire, 
rather  than  what  we  think  we  ought  to  desire. 
There  is  too  much  of  what  might  be  called  manner- 
ism in  the  prayers  of  the  sanctua,ry.  Certain  expres- 
sions have  come  down  to  us  by  tradition  from  the 
elders,  and  it  has  become  the  fashion  to  use  them, 
until  at  length  both  for  him  who  utters  them  and  the 
people  whom  he  is  leading  all  meaning  has  dropped 
out  of  them.  Nay,  sometimes  a  similar  effect  has 
been  produced  through  the  formal  and  habitual 
adoption  even  of  the  language  of  the  Word  of  God. 
I  trust  that  I  shall  not  be  misunderstood  here.  The 
Bible  is  the  great  directory  in  prayer,  and  there  is  no 
liturgy  like  that  of  the  Book  of  Psalms.  Still,  even 
when  we  employ  its  words,  we  must  see  to  it  that  we 
use  them  intelligently  and  sincerely,  and  must  not 
fall  into  the  snare  of  letting  the  form  become  a  form- 
alism. We  can  be  whole-souled  only  in  that  which 
is  real  to  us,  and  to  have  reality  in  our  petitions,  they 
must  be  natural  and  our  own.  Hence,  it  is  better  to 
use  Scriptural  quotation  only  when  we  can  pour  our 
hearts  warm  and  living  into  its  inspired  mould ;  and 
wherever  the  language  of  the  Bible  is  figurative  or 
obscure,  we  should  prefer  to  put  our  thought  into  the 
plainest  words  which  we  can  select  for  ourselves. 
The  late  Dr.  James  Hamilton  has  given,  in  one  of 
his  review  articles,  an  interesting  illustration,  which 
will  make  my  meaning  plain  in  this  connection.  He 
uses  it  in  regard  to  hymns,  but  its  primary  application 
is  to  prayer.  I  quote  his  words.  He  says  :  "  I  can- 
not tell  it  accurately,  but  I  have  heard   of  a  godly 


250 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  THE    WORD. 


couple  whose  child  was  sick  and  at  the  point  of  death. 
It  was  unusual  to  pray  together,  except  at  the  hour 
of  ^  exercise '  ;  however,  in  her  distress,  the  mother 
prevailed  on  her  husband  to  kneel  down  at  the  bed- 
side and  '  offer  a  word  of  prayer.'  The  good  man's 
prayers  were  chiefly  taken  from  that  best  of  litur- 
gies, the  Book  of  Psalms ;  and  after  a  long  and  rever- 
ential introduction  from  the  90th  psalm  and  else- 
where, he  proceeded  :  '  Lord,  turn  again  the  captivity 
of  Zion  ;  then  shall  our  mouth  be  filled  with  laughter 
and  our  tongue  with  singing  ' ;  and  as  he  was  proceed- 
ing in  that  strain,  the  poor,  agonized  mother  inter- 
rupted him,  saying  :  '  Eh  !  man,  you're  aye  drawn 
out  for  thae  Jews,  but  it's  our  bairn  that's  deein','  at 
the  same  time  clasping  her  hands  and  crying,  *  Lord, 
help  us !  oh,  give  us  back  our  darling,  if  it  be  Thy 
holy  will ;  and  if  he  is  to  be  taken,  oh,  take  him  to 
Thyself.'  "^  Now,  every  one  must  see  how  the  reality 
of  that  woman's  distress  brushed  away  all  mannerism 
from  her  prayer,  and  she  told  the  Lord  just  what  she 
wanted. 

But  the  same  thing  holds  in  public  petitions.  We 
have  too  largely  overlaid  our  devotions,  alike  in  the 
sanctuary  and  the  closet,  with  artificialisms  which  are 
none  the  less  injurious  because  they  consist  in  the 
formal  repetition  of  words  taken  from  the  Scriptures 
of  truth.  We  attempt  to  soar  aloft  into  spiritual 
regions  on  the  borrowed  wings  of  David  and  his 
brother  psalmists,  though  at  the  moment  we  have  no 


*  British  and  Foreigri  Evangelical  Review  for  1865,  p.  340. 


THE  CONDUCT  OF  PUBLIC  WORSHIP.  25  I 

community  of  feeling  with  them,  and  the  troubles  of 
our  every-day  experience  are  permitted  to  lie  un- 
spoken on  our  own  and  our  people's  hearts.  We 
smile  as  the  lawyer  talks  of  his  precedents,  and  we 
are  apt  to  say  to  him  :  "  What  of  these  ?  Give  us 
justice,  and  if  you  have  not  a  precedent,  make  one 
for  the  occasion."  We  complain  of  the  architect  who, 
forgetting  that  we  are  living  in  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, will  insist  on  building  churches  for  us  in  the 
beautiful,  yet  cold,  inconvenient,  and  dimly-lighted 
Gothic  of  the  past,  and  we  say  to  him  :  ''  These  were 
all  well  for  former  days,  but  give  us  something  suited 
to  our  present  requirements."  But  we  are  often  our- 
selves guilty  of  similar  anachronisms  in  our  prayers, 
and  keep  using  forms  of  expression,  some  Scriptural 
and  some  traditional,  which  have  no  special  appropri- 
ateness to  men's  circumstances  now,  until  we  provoke 
our  people  to  say,  as  that  agonized  mother  did, 
''  Use  common  words  that  will  describe  our  real 
needs." 

Again,  our  public  prayers  should  be  definite  and 
direct.  If  we  were  going  on  a  deputation  to  the  head 
of  some  department  in  the  State,  and  were  appointed 
to  represent  our  companions  by  making  a  statement 
of  the  case  which  we  had  come  to  plead,  we  would 
immediately  set  ourselves  to  discover  how  most 
pointedly,  briefly,  and  comprehensively  we  could 
make  our  wishes  known  to  the  official.  All  circum- 
locution would  be  avoided ;  we  would  not  ask  for 
anything  which  we  did  not  want,  and  we  would  put 
clearly  and  distinctly  forward  those  things  which  we 


252  THE  MINISTRY  OF   THE    WORD. 

desired.  Now,  if  we  had  a  right  idea  of  our  duty  as 
leaders  of  public  prayer,  we  would  pursue  a  similar 
plan  with  our  petitions  in  the  sanctuary.  Chalmers 
said  of  some  one's  prayers,  that  they  were  *'  business- 
like," and  he  could  not  have  given  them  higher  com- 
mendation. When  Bartimeus  called  so  loudly  and 
importunately  on  the  Lord  to  have  mercy  on  him,  and 
Christ  commanded  that  he  should  be  brought  unto 
Him,  he  was  met  with  the  question,  ''  What  wilt  thou 
that  I  should  do  unto  thee  ?  "  But  he  was  at  no  loss 
for  a  reply.  He  did  not  begin  a  thousand  miles  away 
from  the  subject  that  was  distressing  him,  and  ask  for 
a  great  many  things  for  which  he  did  not  care,  but  he 
went  to  the  point  at  once,  and  said  :  ''  Lord,  that  I  may 
receive  my  sight."  So  again,  when  Salome  came  with 
her  sons,  worshiping  Him  and  desiring  a  certain  thing 
of  Him,  He  said  unto  her,  ''  What  wilt  thou  ?  "  And 
in  her  reply,  though  she  did  not  know  all  that  was 
implied  in  her  prayer,  she  went  straight  to  that  which 
she  desired.  Now,  we  may  profitably  follow  such 
examples  ;  and  if,  ever  as  we  rise  to  lead  our  fellow- 
worshipers  in  prayer,  we  could  hear  the  voice  of  the 
Master  saying  unto  us,  "  What  will  ye  that  I  should 
do  for  you  ?  "  our  petitions  would  have  as  much  of 
definiteness  and  directness  as  there  is  in  the  flight  of 
an  arrow  to  its  mark. 

A  revival  of  spiritual  life  and  earnestness  in  our 
own  souls  will  richly  contribute  to  the  production  of 
this  directness.  Earnestness  always  takes  the  short- 
est road.  '*  Before  our  conversion,"  said  some  fervent 
ones,  after  a  revival,  '^  we  used  to  pray  in  circles,  but 


THE  CONDUCT  OF  PUBLIC  WORSHIP.  253 

now  we  pray  in  straight  lines."  I  think  we  might 
learn  much  in  this  respect  also  from  the  study  of  the 
prayers  recorded  in  the  Bible.  Take  for  example  that 
of  Abraham's  servant  when  he  went  for  Rebekah,  or 
that  of  Jacob  when  he  was  afraid  of  meeting  Esau,  or 
that  of  Elijah  on  Mount  Carmel,  or  that  of  Peter 
and  the  Apostles  after  the  first  imprisonment  for 
Jesus'  sake,  and  you  will  be  struck  with  the  simple, 
honest  straightforwardness  of  the  requests  they  made. 
These  men  had  an  object  in  view,  and  they  went 
right  onward  to  that.  So  let  it  be  with  us.  Let  us 
gather  up  the  wants  of  the  people  as  far  as  they  are 
known  to  us,  and  express  them  simply  and  truthfully 
to  God,  and  then  let  us  conclude,  and  the  advantage 
both  in  point  and  brevity  will  be  unspeakable. 

Finally,  our  public  prayers  should  be  in  some  parts 
intercessory,  and  not  merely  selfish.  When  Christ 
comes  into  the  heart.  He  widens  it  and  gives  it  in- 
terest in,  and  sympathy  with,  others.  Now,  these 
emotions  find  their  natural  outlet  at  the  throne  of 
grace.  What  a  beautiful  illustration  of  this  we  have 
in  the  case  of  the  apostle  Paul !  As  in  the  central 
office  of  a  great  telegraphic  company  there  are  wires 
in  communication  with  all  parts  of  the  country  and 
all  quarters  of  the  globe,  so  from  the  closet  of  the 
apostle  there  went  out  messages  of  greeting  and 
benediction,  each  one  going  round  by  the  throne  of 
God,  to  the  Christian  brethren  in  all  the  cities  in 
which  he  had  been  permitted  to  labor.  He  was  a 
Christian,  and  was  affected  by  everything  that  had 
any  slightest  influence  on  the  cause  of  Christ.   There- 


254 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  THE   WORD. 


fore,  he  prayed  not  only  for  his  brethren  in  the  Lord, 
but  for  all  men  in  authority  in  the  state.  And  in  our 
pulpits  we  ought  to  imitate  his  example.  The  aged, 
the  sick,  the  sorrowful,  should  be  remembered  by  us 
with  tenderness,  while  those  who  are  laboring  in  the 
Sunday-school  and  mission  district  should  be  '  com- 
mended to  the  grace  of  Him  in  whom  they  believe." 
The  land  we  live  in  should  be  patriotically  borne  upon 
our  hearts  in  public  prayer,  and  our  judges,  legislators, 
and  magistrates  ought  never  to  be  forgotten.  A 
place  should  also  frequently  be  found  for  the  mission- 
ary enterprise  both  at  home  and  abroad,  and  for  the 
work  in  which  our  Tract  and  Bible  societies  are  so 
nobly  engaged.  It  will  not  be  wise,  indeed,  to  seek 
to  include  all  these  in  every  prayer,  but  by  a  little 
system  on  your  part,  you  may  be  able  so  to  vary  the 
objects  for  which  you  pray  on  different  occasions  as 
to  secure  brevity  and  variety  at  all  times.  Only  re- 
member that  the  heart  must  be  in  each  utterance ; 
for  in  public  prayer,  though  it  is  not  essential  to  say 
all  you  feel  (for  tJiat,  the  closet  is  the  place),  yet  it  is 
indispensable  that  you  feel  all  you  say. 

I  have  not  thought  it  well  to  say  a  word  on  com- 
mon faults  in  prayer,  partly  because  these  are  very 
faithfully  pointed  out  in  various  works  that  are  of 
easy  access  to  you,*  and  partly  because  I  could  not 


*  See,  especially,  the  lectures  of  the  late  Dr.  Porter,  of  An- 
dover  ;  the  lecture  on  Public  Prayer  in  Mr.  Spurgeon's  "  Lectures 
to  my  Students ;"  and  the  extremely  valuable  book  on  Public 
Worship,  by  J.  Spencer  Pearsall,  London. 


THE  CONDUCT  OF  PUBLIC  WORSHIP.  255 

expose  them  without  seeming  to  turn  very  sacred 
subjects  into  ridicule.  I  leave  you  here,  therefore,  to 
the  guidance  of  sanctified  common  sense  and  the 
teachings  of  the  Holy  Spirit ;  and  if  any  one  of  you 
should  be  overwhelmed  with  a  sense  of  his  own  un- 
fitness to  lead  the  devotions  of  others,  let  him  take 
comfort  in  the  thought  that  they  who  have  such  feel- 
ings are  most  commonly  those  who  excel  in  this  ex- 
ercise. The  poet  Cowper  shrunk  almost  from  the 
sound  of  his  own  voice,  and  yet  when  he  led  in  that 
little  prayer  -  meeting  which  was  held  in  the  great 
house  of  Olney,  it  is  the  testimony  of  those  who 
heard  him,  that  no  one  ever  prayed  like  him.  He 
who  knows  that  he  has  a  gift  in  this  direction,  has  in 
reality  no  excellence  in  it,  for  the  consciousness  of  it 
mars  its  glory.  He  who  is  eager  to  lay  hold  of  God, 
and  seeks  to  rise  to  ever  closer  communion  with  Him, 
mourning  all  the  while  that  he  is  so  far  from  his  ideal, 
is  likely  to  be  nearer  to  it  than  he  wots  of.  He  sees 
not  the  shining  of  his  own  face,  but  the  people  feel 
that  he  is  '  talking '  with  God.  Take  comfort,  then,  for 
fluency  is  not  always  fervor;  and  always  in  prayer 
there  is  more  real  power  in  the  hesitancy  of  a  bur- 
dened heart  than  in  the  easy  utterance  of  stock 
phrases.  If  the  heart  be  in  the  prayer,  other  things 
will  right  themselves  by  degrees.  But  nothing  will 
compensate  for  the  absence  of  that. 


LECTURE    XI. 

THE  PASTORATE  AND   PASTORAL  VISITATION. 


LECTURE     XI. 

THE   PASTORATE  AND    PASTORAL  VISITATION. 

^  I  ^HE  pastorate  and  the  pulpit  act  and  react  upon 
-^  each  other.  The  experiences  of  the  people 
gathered  by  the  minister  in  his  intercourse  among 
them,  serve  to  enrich  his  discourses  ;  and  the  charac- 
ter and  conduct  of  the  pastor  during  the  week  will 
either  deepen  or  efface  the  impressions  made  by  his 
sermon  on  the  Sabbath.  The  discourse  is  itself  in 
some  measure  a  feeding  or  shepherding  of  the  flock  ; 
and  the  life  is  always  a  sermon,  for  there  is  no  elo- 
quence so  potent  as  that  of  character,  and  no  in- 
fluence so  subtle  as  that  of  example.  The  sermon 
of  the  Lord's  day  gives  the  minister  an  introduction 
into  the  homes  of  his  people  on  other  days,  and  his 
behavior  before  them  on  such  occasions  will  go  far 
either  to  neutralize  or  to  enforce  his  public  teachings. 
The  deportment  of  the  pastor  will  be  to  his  dis- 
courses, either  like  the  extinguisher,  which  puts  out 
the  light,  or  like  the  reflector,  which  intensifies  its 
lustre. 

It  is  of  the  utmost  importance,  therefore,  that  you 
should  be  thoroughly  alive  to  the  bearing  of  your 
pastoral  demeanor  on  your  pulpit  efficiency.  There 
are  some  men  of  whom  you  would  say,  as  you  listen 

(25Q) 


26o  THE  MINISTR  V  OF  THE   WORD. 

to  their  sermons,  that  they  should  be  always  in  the 
pulpit ;  but  when  you  meet  them  in  private,  you  are 
constrained  to  declare,  as  you  listen  to  their  conver- 
sation, that  they  should  never  be  in  the  pulpit.  Let 
it  not  be  so  with  you.  Do  nothing  in  your  life  to 
wipe  out  the  impressions  made  by  your  sermons,  but 
seek  that  it  may  be  said  of  you,  as  Chaucer  said  of 
his  "  goode  parson," 

"The  lore  of  Christ  and  his  apostles  twelve 
He  taught,  but  first  he  followed  it  himselve." 

I  would  not  have  you,  indeed,  to  put  on  any  artifi- 
cial piety,  or  to  cultivate  any  mere  appearance  of 
sanctity.  Neither  would  I  desire  you  to  mistake 
starch  for  dignity,  or  moroseness  for  piety.  I  have 
no  sympathy  with  those  who  seem  to  think  that 
clergymen  are  bound  by  a  stricter  moral  law  than 
other  men,  and  that  what  is  perfectly  justifiable  in  a 
layman  (so-called),  is  unwarrantable  in  a  minister. 
We  cannot  admit  that  the  preacher  is  to  be  like  a 
monk,  going  about  with  sober  step  and  look  demure, 
never  seen  to  laugh,  or  if  he  do  make  the  attempt, 
that  he  should  only  "  grin  horribly  a  ghastly  smile," 
and  look  more  melancholy  in  his  mirth  than  an  ordi- 
nary mortal  would  in  tears.  We  grant  that  he  may 
have  some  reasons  which  other  men  have  not,  for 
seeking  to  walk  worthy  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ ;  but 
every  professing  Christian  should  be  walking  in  the 
same  way  with  him.  We  grant,  also,  that  he  should 
set  an  example  in  every  good  work  ;  but  that  which 
he  sets,  if  it  be  really  good,  it  is  the  duty  of  his  peo- 


THE  PASTORATE  AND  PASTORAL  VISITATION.   26 1 

pie  to  follow  ;  and  the  notion  that  he  ought  to  be  more 
sedate,  subdued,  and  holy  than  another  Christian 
should  be,  is  but  a  fragment  of  the  teaching  of  that 
Church  which  insists  upon  the  celibacy  of  the  clergy, 
and  regards  the  conventual  life  as  specially  '/  relig- 
ious." There  are  not  two  standards  of  Christian 
morality.  The  pattern  is  one  and  the  same  for  all 
believers  ;  and  it  is  the  duty  of  all  alike  to  get  as  near 
as  possible  to  ''  the  measure  of  the  stature  of  the  full- 
ness of  Christ." 

We  ask,  therefore,  for  no  professional  piety,  or 
official  decorum.  We  desire  only  that  you  should 
cultivate  a  sense  of  the  presence  of  Christ  with  you 
in  all  your  goings  out  and  comings  in  among  your 
people,  and  then  everything  will  come  right  of  itself. 
Do  nothing,  and  say  nothing  of  which  you  would  be 
ashamed,  if  He  were  visibly  by  your  side ;  and  as 
when  men  look  at  the  spectrum  through  a  telescope, 
they  see  the  mystic  presence  of  other  lines  than 
those  made  by  the  prismatic  colors,  so  your  people, 
as  they  scan  your  deportment,  will  see  in  you  the 
evident  tokens  that  there  is  more  about  you  than 
merely  earthly  agencies  can  account  for,  even  the 
spirit  of  the  Lord  himself. 

But  mere  general  exhortation  will  be  comparatively 
useless  to  you  in  this  department,  and  so  I  will  come 
at  once  to  particulars. 

And  first,  in  reference  to  parish  matters,  or  things 
pertaining  to  the  management  of  congregational 
affairs,  let  me  advise  you  not  to  attempt  to  do  too 
much  at  the  outset  of  your  ministry.     Your  earliest 


262  THE  MINISTRY  OF    THE    WORD. 

impulse,  as  soon  as  you  discover  how  matters  are, 
will  be  to  set  everything  right  in  a  moment  ;  and  as 
the  young  housemaid,  in  her  attempts  to  clean  a 
room,  generally  ends  by  making  the  confusion  greater 
than  it  was  when  she  began,  the  probability  is,  that 
you  will  only  increase  the  difficulties  by  your  efforts 
to  overcome  them.  Make  haste  slowly.  The  first 
thing  you  have  to  do  is  to  attain  to  ease  in  the  prep- 
aration of  your  discourses.  I  dare  say,  you  are 
wondering  now  how  you  will  ever  be  able  to  prepare 
two  sermons  weekly.  But  just  similar  misgivings 
have  filled  the  hearts  of  all  your  predecessors ;  and 
from  my  experience,  I  can  affirm  that  a  little  systematic 
effort,  perseveringly  expended,  will  very  soon  enable 
you  to  accomplish  that  work  within  such  limits  as 
will  allow  opportunity  for  the  discharge  of  other 
duties.  But  you  will  never  reach  that  point  if  you 
persist  in  thinking  that  you  cannot  reach  it.  So  you 
must  begin  determined  to  master  that  difficulty. 
And,  in  order  to  do  that  thoroughly,  you  must  resist 
the  temptations  that  will  be  put  before  you  to  induce 
you  to  do  a  great  many  more  things  at  the  same 
time.  These  may  be  very  important  in  their  places  ; 
but  the  other  is  the  most  important,  and  they  can 
wait.  As  John  Bright  once  said,  ''  You  can't  drive 
six  omnibuses  abreast  through  Temple  Bar."  Neither 
can  you  cany  on  a  great  number  of  different  enter- 
prises in  the  first  year  or  two  of  your  pastorate. 
Robert  Hall  was  in  the  habit  of  saying,  that  when 
the  devil  saw  that  a  young  minister  was  in  earnest, 
he  got  on  his  back,  and  rode  him  to  death,  in  order 


THE  PASTOR  A  TE  AND  PA  S  TORAL  VI  SIT  A  TION.    263 

that  he  might  be  the  sooner  rid  of  him  ;  and  I  be- 
lieve statistics  show,  that  the  greatest  mortaUty 
among  ministers  is  during  the  first  three  years  after 
settlement.  Now  one,  at  least,  of  the  causes  of  that 
is,  that  most  young  men  put  "too  many  irons  into 
the  fire  "  at  first.  Without  stopping  until  their  pul- 
pit preparations  have  become  easy  to  them,  they  set 
up  a  Bible-class,  a  cottage-meeting,  a  mission  station, 
and  so  on,  and  go  into  each  of  them  with  all  the 
fervor  of  juvenile  enthusiasm,  until  warned  by  fail- 
ing health,  when  it  is  too  late,  they  abandon  some,  or 
may  have  even  to  look  for  another  sphere.  Now  you 
will  not  understand  that  I  am  an  advocate  of  lazi- 
ness, when  I  say  that  such  a  course  as  that  is  very 
bad  economy  indeed.  The  sixth  commandment  is, 
"  Thou  shalt  not  kill,"  and  it  forbids  suicide  equally 
with  murder.  Therefore,  in  your  pastorate,  as  in  the 
ascent  of  a  hill,  take  it  leisurely  at  first,  for  if  you 
run  yourself  out  of  breath  in  the  early  stages  of 
your  life-journey,  you  will  have  no  strength  re- 
maining for  the  later. 

Just  before  I  was  settled,  I  was  put  on  my  guard 
against  this  too  common  besetment  of  young  minis- 
ters, by  an  aged  elder  who  took  a  fatherly  interest  in 
me.  He  gave  me  substantially  the  advice  which  I 
am  repeating  now  to  you.  He  said,  ''  Keep  yourself 
entirely  for  your  pulpit  work  until  that  becomes 
manageable  ;  then  add  something  else,  and  when 
that  has  begun  to  sit  lightly  upon  you,  a  third  enter- 
prise may  be  taken  in  hand  ;  and  so  you  will  go  on 
increasing  your  influence ;  but  if  you  begin  all  these 


264  ^^-^  MINISTRY  OF  THE   WORD. 

things  at  once,  you  will  inevitably  break  down,  and 
will  have  to  throw  some  of  them  up,  thereby  giving  an 
aspect  of  failure  to  your  work  which  it  will  never  re- 
cover." I  tried  to  follow  that  wise  counsel,  and  to 
that,  by  the  blessing  of  God  upon  me,  I  trace  the 
fact,  that  in  a  ministry  of  now  nearly  three  and 
twenty  years'  duration,  I  have  been  incapacitated  for 
public  work  by  illness  only  for  the  half  of  one  Sab- 
bath. The  health-lift  will  injure  you,  if  you  begin 
with  trying  to  raise  a  thousand  pounds ;  but  if  you 
commence  with  a  moderate  weight,  and  go  on  in- 
creasing it  by  the  scale,  you  may,  perhaps,  come  up 
to  the  neighborhood  of  the  larger  number,  and  that 
even  with  advantage  to  your  physical  strength.  Now 
it  is  quite  similar  here.  Work  which,  taken  gradu- 
ally upon  you,  may  be  performed  at  length  with  a 
sense  of  invigoration  and  enjoyment,  may  kill  you,  if 
you  undertake  it  all  at  once.  Let  your  zeal,  there- 
fore, in  this  department  be  tempered  with  discretion. 
Again,  do  not  hang  everything  round  your  own 
neck.  That  was  what  Moses  was  doing,  when  his 
father-in-law  said  to  him  :  '^  Thou  wilt  surely  wear 
away,  both  thou  and  this  people  that  is  with  thee, 
for  this  thing  is  too  heavy  for  thee,  thou  art  not  able 
to  perform  it  thyself  alone,"  *  and  counselled  him  to 
adopt  the  principle  of  the  division  of  labor.  Now  you 
ought  to  follow  Jethro's  advice.  Attempt  not  to 
do  everything  yourself  Train  others  for  work.  Study 
the  brethren  by  whom  you  are  surrounded,  and  seek 


*  Exodus  xviii.   18. 


THE  PASTOR  A  TE  AND  PASTORAL  VI SIT  A  TION.    265 

to  put  each  to  that  for  which  he  is  best  adapted.  It 
will  not  do  for  the  commander-in-chief  in  the  day  of 
battle  to  be  mending  a  broken  wagon  wheel.  He  has 
other  and  more  important  work  on  hand ;  but  such 
details  as  that  may  be  left  to  those  who  are  skilled  in 
setting  them  to  rights.  It  is  your  privilege  as  a  min- 
ister to  plan  and  superintend  the  campaign  ;  but  you 
cannot  be  in  every  place  and  do  everything.  The 
movements  of  the  battle  are  to  be  executed  by  others. 
On  the  Lord's  day  you  give  the  principles  which  are  to 
regulate  your  fellow-laborers,  and  by  the  help  of  God's 
Spirit,  you  furnish  the  enthusiasm  by  which  they  are 
inspired  ;  but  you  ought  not,  save  in  very  exceptional 
cases,  as  in  the  beginning  of  some  struggling  cause,  to 
be  the  factotum  of  the  church.  Cultivate,  therefore,  the 
faculty  of  organization.  Let  your  church  grow  under 
you  into  a  finely-constructed  piece  of  spiritual  mech- 
anism, every  part  of  which,  as  in  a  steam-engine,  shall 
be  nicely  adapted  to  all  the  rest,  and  the  whole  calcu- 
lated to  tell  with  effect  upon  the  world  around,  while 
all  you  will  have  to  do  will  be  to  sustain  the  water  at 
the  boiling  point  so  as  to  generate  the  power  that  is 
to  keep  the  whole  in  motion. 

Finally,  here,  do  not  attempt  to  have  everything 
done  in  your  own  particular  way.  I  have  used  the 
illustration  of  a  general  with  his  army,  but  I  did  not 
mean  to  imply  that  military  discipline  could  be  intro- 
duced into  the  Christian  church.  Not  the  commands 
of  the  minister,  but  the  precepts  of  Christ  are  the  or- 
ders of  the  "  sacramental  host."  You  must  not  ex- 
pect, therefore,  that  everything  will  be  done  precisely 
12 


266       THE  MINI  ST R  Y  OF   THE   WORD. 

as  you  wish  to  have  it  done.  You  are  to  move  your 
people  by  influence,  not  by  authority.  If  you  are  a 
wise  man  they  will  not  be  long  in  discovering  it,  and 
they  will  defer  to  you  accordingly.  But  this  deference 
must  be  mutual,  and  when  you  do  not  see  things  pre- 
cisely as  they  do,  then  your  wisdom  will  suspect  that 
you  may  be  in  the  wrong  and  will  lead  you  gracefully 
to  give  way. 

Of  course,  in  all  this  I  am  referring  to  modes  of 
operation  in  which  no  moral  principle  is  compro- 
mised. True  disciples  of  Christ  will  not  insist  upon 
anything  that  is  shown  to  be  contrary  to  the  will 
of  the  Lord  ;  but  if  they  should  do  so,  then  it  will 
be  the  right  time  for  you  to  withstand,  and  when 
you  resist  on  such  a  ground  you  will  be  invin- 
cible. Such  occasions,  however,  will  not  be  of  fre- 
quent occurrence  ;  and  in  all  indifferent  matters,  when 
your  plan  is  not  favored,  then  be  thankful  that  there 
are  so  many  people  in  the  church  wiser  than  yourself, 
and  make  the  best  of  it.  Do  not  be  always  acting 
the  part  of  Cassandra  and  uttering  predictions  which 
nobody  believes.  Above  all,  if  your  prophecies  should 
come  to  pass,  do  not  turn  round  and  say,  ''  I  told  you 
so,"  but  leave  the  lesson  to  burn  itself  in  silently,  and 
rely  upon  it  that  its  influence  will  be  felt  for  many 
days.  He  who  is  determined  at  all  hazards  to  have 
his  own  will,  is  lording  it  over  God's  heritage,  and 
will  get  more  than  he  is  seeking,  for  he  will  bring 
upon  himself  the  ill-will  of  the  brotherhood,  and  that 
will  neutralize  any  amount  of  pulpit  eloquence.  It 
is  not  a  very  fitting  proverb  for  an  abstainer  to  quote. 


THE  PASTOR  A  TE  AND  PASTORAL  VI  SIT  A  TION. 


267 


yet  its  appositeness  to  the  case  in  hand  may  be  ex- 
cuse enough  for  repeating  the  homely  saying,  "  He 
who  will  have  the  last  drop  in  the  tankard  gets  the 
lid  on  his  nose,"  and  if  you  are  resolved  to  carry 
everything  according  to  your  will,  you  will  lay  up  for 
yourself  many  a  heritage  of  sorrow.  We  are  the  dis- 
ciples of  Him  who  said,  "  I  am  among  you  as  he  that 
serveth,"  and  self  in  us  should  be  crucified  for  His  sake. 
There  is  another  side  to  all  this,  no  doubt,  and  if 
I  were  lecturing  to  church  members  I  would  insist 
that  they  also  are  bound  by  these  sacred  principles  ; 
but  if  there  is  to  be  a  rivalry  as  to  who  should  be  the 
first  to  yield,  then  let  the  minister  look  to  his  laurels, 
and  see  that  no  man  takes  his  crown. 

Passing  now  to  the  subject  of  visitation,  I  would 
say  that  the  pastor's  first  care  should  be  for  the  aged, 
the  sick,  the  bereaved,  and  those  who  are  suffering 
from  any  kind  of  trial.  The  afflicted  long  for  sym- 
pathy, and  to  whom  can  they  look  for  that  more  nat- 
urally than  to  the  minister  of  Ghrist  ?  Let  them  not 
look  in  vain.  Go  to  them  in  tenderness  and  love, 
with  these  words  sounding  in  your  ears,  ''  Inas- 
much as  ye  have  done  it  unto  one  of  the  least  of 
these  my  brethren,  ye  have  done  it  unto  me."  Do 
not  think  of  such  work  as  if  it  were  a  task,  or  even 
simply  a  duty,  but  esteem  it  a  privilege,  and  seek 
"  to  lift  up  them  that  are  bowed  down." 

Let  your  sympathy  be  real.  Do  not  say  that 
which  you  do  not  feel.  But  that  you  may  feel 
rightly,  keep  yourself  in  close  fellowship  with  Christ. 


268  THE  MINISTR  V  OF  THE    WORD. 

While  with  the  one  hand  you  seek  to  raise  your 
brother  out  of  the  depths,  put  your  other  into  the 
hand  of  the  Saviour,  and  seek  to  imbibe  the  spirit 
which  He  manifested  on  His  visit  to  the  weeping  sis- 
ters at  Bethany. 

Consolation  will  be  best  imparted  by  you  in  the 
words  of  Scripture,  for  at  such  times  there  is  no 
solace  like  that  which  is  contained  in  the  sayings  of 
the  Lord  Jesus  and  His  inspired  servants.  Search  the 
Bible,  therefore,  for  appropriate  passages,  and  that 
you  may  have  them  constantly  in  readiness,  lay  them 
up  in  the  memory  of  the  heart.  They  will  be  always 
more  powerful  when  you  have  found  them  for  your- 
self; but  that  you  may  know  what  a  treasury  of  com- 
fort there  is  laid  up  in  these  ancient  oracles,  and  how 
it  may  be  turned  to  account  in  dealing  with  modern 
sufferers,  such  a  book  as  that  of  Andrew  Bonar,*  the 
biographer  of  McCheyne,  may  be  very  valuable  and 
suggestive. 

Sometimes,  indeed,  it  may  seem  to  you  that  even 
the  words  of  inspiration  will  fall  like  hail-stones  on 
the  sufferer's  heart,  and  you  may  be  fain  to  take  ref- 
uge in  silence,  solacing  yourself  the  while  with 
Whittier's  lines : 

"  With  silence  only  as  their  benediction 
God's  angel's  come ; 
When  in  the  shadow  of  a  great  affliction 
The  soul  sits  dumb." 


*  The  Visitor's  Book  of  Texts  ;  or,  The  Word  brought  nigh  to 
the  sick  and  sorrowful.  By  the  Rev.  A.  A.  Bonar.  London  : 
Nisbet  &  Co. 


THE  PASTOR  A  TE  A. YD  FAS  TORAL  VI  SIT  A  TION.    269 

But  even  in  that  unbroken  stillness  there  will  be 
comfort,  if  the  tear  shall  be  seen  standing  in  the  eye, 
and  if,  at  length,  the  quiet  voice  of  prayer  tenderly 
pleading  with  God,  shall  rise  out  of  the  darkness. 
On  such  occasions  be  not  in  too  much  haste  to  check 
the  outburst  of  grief,  or  to  point  the  practical  lesson 
of  the  trial.  Wait  a  little,  and  ere  long  a  blessed  op- 
portunity will  come  which  you  may  turn  to  the  best 
account  both  for  the  mourner  and  for  your  Lord. 

Then  when  you  enter  the  chamber  of  the  sick  one, 
cultivate  the  gentleness  of  your  Master.  ''  Do  not 
strive,  nor  cry,  nor  lift  up  your  voice."  Go  with 
muffled  footstep  into  the  room.  Speak  softly  and 
tenderly.  Lead  the  sufferer  to  Christ.  Pray  with 
him,  and  in  all  your  exercises  let  a  holy  cheerfulness 
surround  you  like  a  halo.  Be  not  sombre  or  gloomy. 
Let  the  sick  one  and  his  nurse  feel  as  if  a  ray  of  sun- 
light had  come  in  to  gladden  them.  Do  not  remain 
so  long  as  to  create  fatigue,  and  thus  your  visits  will 
do  *'  good  like  a  medicine,"  and  your  return  will  be 
looked  for  with  eagerness. 

If  the  illness  is  mortal,  realize  the  responsibility  of  the 
position  in  which  you  stand,  yet  do  not  rashly  and  blunt- 
ly perform  that  which  is  much  better  accomplished  by 
the  method  of  indirectness.  Relatives  will  perhaps  in- 
sist that  you  should  inform  the  sufferer  that  his  recovery 
is  hopeless ;  and  though  I  have  always  felt,  that  in  so 
doing  they  lay  upon  us  a  burden  which  we  ought  not 
to  be  called  to  bear,  yet  in  such  circumstances  you 
ought  lovingly  and  gently  to  lead  the  mind  of  the 
afflicted  one  to  the  contemplation  of  his  departure ; 


2^0  T^^E  MINI  ST R  V  OF  THE   WORD, 

and  if  he  be  unconverted,  to  the  consideration  of  the 
urgency  of  his  repentance  and  return  to  God.  It  is  a 
solemn  work ;  yet  trusting  in  the  help  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  you  may  be  enabled  to  perform  it  in  such  a 
way  as  to  bring  home  the  wanderer  even  at  the 
eleventh  hour.  Be  faithful,  be  tender,  be  true  both 
to  the  sinner  and  his  Saviour,  and  you  will  in  no  wise 
lose  your  reward. 

Nor  are  the  benefits  of  such  ministrations  to  the 
sorrowful  and  the  sick  restricted  to  those  to  whom 
especially  they  are  rendered.  They  will  open  to  you 
the  hearts  of  all  the  members  of  the  household.  A 
new  love  for  you  and  for  your  work  will  be  born  with- 
in their  souls,  and  by  a  little  wisdom  on  your  part, 
you  may  be  blessed  in  leading  them  all  into  the  fold. 
Your  public  discourses  at  such  times  will  be  much 
more  interesting  to  them  than  they  ever  were  before ; 
your  words  will  fall  into  the  furrows  w^hich  God's 
afflictions  have  made  in  their  hearts  and  the  profiting 
will  appear  after  many  days.  Your  kindness  at  such  a 
season  will  never  be  forgotten,  and  always  your  most 
devoted  friends,  and  those  who  profit  most  by  your 
labors  in  the  pulpit,  will  be  those  whom  you  have 
visited  and  comforted  in  their  affliction.  The  longer 
a  minister  is  with  his  people,  he  sees  the  more  of 
them  in  such  tribulation ;  and  thus  it  is,  if  he  be 
faithful  to  his  trust,  that  their  hearts  twine  around 
him,  and  he  seems  at  length  to  belong  to  every 
family  among  them.  How  strong  such  ties  are,  only 
he  can  tell,  who  after  they  have  increasingly  encircled 
him  for  many  years,  is  compelled  to  break  them  at 


THE  PA  STORA  TE  AND  PA  STORAL  VI SIT  A  TION. 


271 


the  call  of  the  Master,  and  to  begin  his  work  anew 
among  those  whom  he  has  never  seen.  The  pain  of 
that  heart-wrench  is  in  me  yet  scarcely  healed ;  but 
the  love  which  caused  the  pain  is  indestructible,  be- 
cause it  is  the  evidence  that  the  services  tenderly 
rendered  on  the  one  side,  were  gratefully  received  on 
the  other,  and  that  the  issue  was  the  profit  of  both 
My  young  brethren,  be  much  in  the  homes  of  sorrow, 
for  through  your  ministrations  to  the  afflicted,  your 
pulpit  utterances  will  acquire  increasing  power. 

On  the  subject  of  general  systematic  visitation  of 
your  people,  perhaps  a  history  of  my  own  experience 
may  be  more  helpful  to  you  than  any  series  of  formal 
exhortations.  I  was  first  settled  over  a  church  of" 
about  one  hundred  and  eighty  members,  many  of 
whom  resided  in  the  village  in  which  the  place  of  wor- 
ship was  situated,  but  a  considerable  number  of  whom 
were  farmers,  scattered  over  an  area  of  about  six  miles 
in  length,  by  about  two  in  breadth.  I  made  my  visits 
systematically  week  by  week,  taking  the  parish  in 
manageable  districts.  At  first  I  was  accompanied  on 
each  occasion  by  an  elder.  It  was  expected  that  I 
should  ask  a  few  questions  of  the  children,  assemble 
the  members  of  the  household,  give  a  formal  address, 
and  then  conclude  with  prayer.  The  presence  of  the 
'^  lay  brother  "  was  a  great  embarrassment.  I  supposed 
that  because  he  was  with  me  I  should  have  a  new  ad- 
dress in  every  house,  and  should  have  a  prayer  in  every 
instance  perfectly  distinct  from  any  which  I  had  for- 
merly offered.  I  had  not  then  heard  of  the  shrewd 
device  by  which  a  minister  in  one  of  the  largest  cities 


272  THE  MINISTRY  OF  THE   WORD. 

in  Scotland  had  got  rid  of  his  encumbering  compan- 
ion. He  endured  the  affliction  patiently  for  one  day, 
but  on  the  following  week,  when  it  came  to  the  time 
that  prayer  should  be  offered  in  the  first  house  visited, 

he  turned  to  his  friend  and  said,  "  Mr. ,  will  you 

pray  ?  "  and  when  he  had  repeated  that  request  in  two 

or   three   households,    Mr.  discovered   that   he 

had  an  engagement  in  the  city,  and  disappeared.  In 
those  early  days,  however,  I  was  too  unsophisticated 
to  think  of  doing  anything  like  that,  so  I  went  on  from 
house  to  house,  making  a  new  address  in  each, 
until,  when  it  was  towards  evening,  and  I  had 
walked  perhaps  five  or  six  miles,  and  made  ten  or 
twelve  addresses,  I  was  more  dead  than  alive.  You 
cannot  wonder,  that  in  these  circumstances,  pastoral 
visitation  became  the  ^'  bete  noir "  of  my  life,  and  I 
positively  hated  it.  Thus  prosecuted,  it  was  simply 
and  only  drudgery,  and  so  far  as  I  know,  was  not 
productive  of  any  good  result. 

When  I  removed  to  Liverpool  I  began  in  a  different 
way.  I  made  no  public  announcement  of  my  pur- 
pose to  visit  in  any  street  or  locality,  but  kept 
steadily  before  me  a  certain  systematic  plan,  by 
which  I  was  enabled  to  get  round  all  the  families 
under  my  care  in  a  reasonable  time.  I  gave  up  all 
formal  addressing,  and  went  into  each  home  as  a 
friend  and  brother  in  the  Lord  ;  and  then  when  I  had 
regained  my  liberty,  my  joy  returned.  I  made  it  my 
business  to  find  out  the  experiences  through  which 
the  household  had  passed  since  I  had  been  last  in  it. 
As   opportunity  offered,  not  obtrusively  and   profes- 


THE  PA  SI  'OR A  TE  A  ND  PA  S  TOR  A  L  VI  SI  TA  TION.   273 

sionally,  but  naturally  and  incidentally,  I  dropped  a 
word  for  the  Master,  and  at  the  close  of  the  visit  I 
attempted  to  gather  up  into  a  brief  prayer  those  sup- 
plications which  I  judged  to  be  most  appropriate  to 
the  circumstances  which  our  conversation  had  re- 
vealed. 

Thus  I  went  on  for  several  years,  when  I  discovered 
that  although  I  was  earnestly  doing  everything  I 
could,  I  was  yet,  somehow,  failing  to  satisfy  either 
my  own  conscience  or  my  people's  expectations  in 
the  matter  of  visiting.  I  was  continually  asking  my- 
self whether  I  could  not  do  more ;  and  each  person 
who  did  not  see  me  in  his  house  during  the  week, 
imagined  that  as  I  had  not  been  to  visit  him,  I  had 
not  been  to  see  anybody  else.  So,  on  looking  all 
round  the  situation,  I  determined,  while  preserving 
the  informal  character  of  the  visitation,  to  make  pub- 
lic announcement  on  the  Sabbath,  of  the  day  and  the 
district  which  I  meant  to  take. 

The  advantages  of  this  plan  were  numerous.  It 
kept  me  up  to  the  mark,  for  having  once  made  the 
engagement,  no  light  thing  was  permitted  to  interfere 
with  its  being  carried  out.  Formerly,  if  a  friend  hap- 
pened to  call  on  me  on  the  day  and  at  the  hour  on 
which  in  my  own  mind  I  had  fixed  for  visitation,  I 
was  tempted  to  say,  ''  Well,  the  visiting  can  stand 
over ;"  and  I  remained  with  him,  leaving  arrears  of 
work  to  accumulate  often  to  a  very  serious  extent.  But 
now  the  programme  was  carried  out,  no  matter  who 
should  come  in  at  the  moment,  or  what  might  be  the 
state  of    the    weather.      Again,    it    enabled    me    to 


2^4  ^^^^  MINISTRY  OF    THE    WORD. 

keep  the  specified  day  free  from  all  other  pastoral  en- 
gagements. If  a  wedding  came  to  be  arranged  for, 
the  hour  was  fixed,  so  as  not  to  interfere  with  the 
purpose  already  publicly  made  known  ;  if  a  funeral 
was  to  be  conducted,  the  time  was  appointed  so  as  to 
leave  this  other  work  untouched.  Thus  the  intima- 
tion of  my  intention  to  spend  a  certain  day  in  visiting 
in  a  certain  locality,  cleared  the  way  for  its  being  car- 
ried out.  It  was  an  express  train,  for  which  all  the 
minor  accommodation  trains  had  to  give  place ;  and 
so  it  happened  that  at  the  year's  end  it  reached  its 
destination,  having  lost  no  time  on  the  road,  and  all 
the  passengers  were  satisfied. 

Moreover,  the  public  announcement  had  this  in- 
cidental advantage,  of  which  at  first  I  had  not 
thought,  namely,  that  it  stopped  at  once  all  grum- 
bling on  the  part  of  the  unvisited.  They  saw  that  I 
was  steadily  working  week  by  week  somewhere ;  it 
became  a  matter  of  interest  to  them  to  watch  my 
progress,  and  they  looked  with  a  certain  strange 
eagerness  for  the  day  when  I  should  name  the  street 
in  which  they  resided.  I  do  not  know  that  in  the 
long  run  I  actually  did  much  more  pastoral  work  than 
I  was  doing  before,  but  I  accomplished  it  with 
more  ease  to  myself,  and  with  far  more  satisfaction 
to  my  people. 

When  I  came  to  New  York  I  resumed  this  prac- 
tice in  every  particular,  save  that  I  found  it  was 
not  always  convenient  to  offer  prayer ;  and  thus  far 
it  has  wrought  admirably,  for  if  it  were  not  for  the 
interruption    of  the  summer    Hegira,    and  for    such 


THE  PASTOR  A  TZ  AND  PASTORAL  VI  SIT  A  77  ON. 


275 


absorbing  engagements  as  that  of  delivering  "  Lec- 
tures on  Preaching"  here  and  there  over  the 
country,  I  would  get  over  my  parish  in  little  more 
than  eight  or  nine  months. 

But  that  is  only  an  external  history.  You  want  to 
know  how  to  deal  with  the  people  themselves  in 
visiting  them.  First,  then,  shun  all  stiffness  and  for- 
mality. Never  mind  your  dignity ;  think  of  your 
Master,  and  go  everywhere  out  of  love  to  Him.  '^  Turn 
your  hand  upon  the  little  ones."  Be  not  so  pompous 
and  formidable  that  the  children  will  run  to  hide 
themselves  at  your  approach.  There  was  a  whole 
volume  of  pastoral  theology  in  the  reply  of  the  High- 
land shepherd  to  the  question  how  it  came  that  he 
took  so  many  prizes  for  the  best  flock  at  the  cattle 
shows.  He  said,  ^'  I  look  weel  to  the  lambs."  So  look 
you  well  to  the  lambs.  Encourage  them  to  come  to 
you ;  and  by  your  tenderness  to  them,  you  will 
easily  enter  into  their  parents'  hearts. 

Be  natural  and  affable.  Do  not  surround  yourself 
with  chevaiix  de  frise  as  if  you  were  a  marble  statue 
in  the  midst  of  a  crowded  thoroughfare  ;  but  let  your 
heart  be  open  and  your  words  be  free.  And  while 
you  will  never  allow  yourself  to  forget  that  you  are 
there  in  the  name  of  the  Lord,  do  not  drag  in  the  sub- 
ject of  religion  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  the  whole 
matter  distasteful.  Cultivate  the  art  of  incidental  al- 
lusion, and  if  you  make  a  transition  in  the  conversa- 
tion, make  it  naturally,  so  that  everybody  will  not  be 
jolted  into  silence.  We  must  find  out  that  in  which 
our  friends   are   interested,  and   descending  to  their 


2^6  THE   MINISTRY  OF   THE    WORD. 

level  therein,  we  shall  be  able  to  lift  them  more  easily 
to  that  which  we  desire  to  set  before  them.  A  friend 
told  me  that  he  went  one  evening  into  the  room 
where  his  son  was  taking  lessons  in  singing,  and  found 
the  tutor  urging  him  to  sound  a  certain  note.  Each 
time  the  lad  made  the  attempt,  however,  he  fell  short, 
and  the  teacher  kept  on  saying  to  him,  *'  Higher ! 
higher !  "  But  it  was  all  to  no  purpose,  until,  descend- 
ing to  the  tone  which  the  boy  was  sounding,  the  mu- 
sician accompanied  him  with  his  own  voice,  and  led 
him  gradually  up  to  that  which  he  wanted  him  to 
sing,  and  then  he  sounded  it  with  ease. 

You  have  heard  the  story  of  Edward  Irving  and  the 
infidel  shoe-maker  who  seemed  resolutely  bent  on  re- 
fusing to  hold  any  communication  with  him.  Going 
up  to  his  ''  seat,"  Irving  lifted  apiece  of  patent-leather, 
which  was  then  a  recent  invention,  and,  as  his  father  was 
a  tanner,  he  knew  so  much  about  it  that  he  was  able  to 
speak  intelligently  regarding  it ;  the  ''  sutor "  con- 
tinued at  his  work,  preserving  silence  as  long  as  he 
could,  until  exasperated  by  what  he  thought  the  pre- 
tension of  the  minister,  he  asked :  *'  What  do  ye  ken 
aboot  leather  ?  "  Irving,  in  reply,  went  into  the  whole 
subject,  and,  after  a  time,  won  by  his  acquaintance 
with  the  matter  of  his  craft,  the  shoe-maker  said : 
"  You're  a  decent  kind  o'  fellow ;  do  yo2i  preach  ? " 
On  the  following  Sabbath  the  vanquished  cobbler 
made  his  appearance  for  the  first  time  at  church,  and 
became  a  regular  attendant  on  Irving's  ministry,  ex- 
cusing himself  to  all  who  wondered  at  his  conduct  by 


THE  PASTORATE  AND  PASTORAL  VISITATION.    277 

saying,    "  He's  a  sensible  man  yon,   he  kens   aboot 
leather! "* 

Now,  an  incident  hke  that  indicates  that  in  order 
to  turn  pastoral  visitation  to  good  account  we  must 
interest  ourselves  in  the  common  labors  and  expe- 
riences of  our  people,  and  enter  through  that 
door  into  their  hearts.  I  was  one  evening  driven 
home  from  a  farmer's  house,  a  distance  of  some  six  or 
seven  miles,  by  a  frank  young  boy,  who  at  once  got 
into  conversation  with  me.  He  talked  about  the  farm, 
the  horses  and  the  dog,  and  then  by  some  subtle  link 
of  association  the  subject  was  changed  to  that  of  the 
school.  I  soon  discovered  that  his  favorite  study  was 
arithmetic,  and  asked  him  what  he  was  doing  in  it : 
"  O,"  he  replied,  ''  I  am  in  profit  and  loss."  "  Can 
you  do  all  the  examples  in  it  ?  "  '^  Yes,  some  of  them 
were  very  hard,  but  I  have  done  them  all  ;  I  did  the 
last  to-day."  "  I  think  I  could  give  you  one  in  that 
rule  that  you  could  not  do."  "  I  doubt  it ;  let  me 
hear  it."  '^  It  is  this :  *  What  shall  it  profit  a  man  if 
he  should  gain  the  whole  world  and  lose  his  own  soul  ?  ' 
Could  you  work  that  out  ? "  ^'  No,"  said  he,  as  a 
thoughtful  expression  came  over  his  countenance ; 
*'  that's  beyond  me,  I  admit."  Thus,  having  won  his 
confidence  and  affection,  it  was  easy  for  me  to  speak 
with  him  in  such  a  way  that  his  whole  nature  was 
aroused,  and  by  and  by  he  gave  himself  to  the 
Lord. 


*  See  •'  The  Life  of  Edward  Irving,"  by  Mrs.  Oliphant,  pp.  no, 
Jii. 


278  THE  MINISTRY  OF    THE    WORD. 

Or,  to  take  another  illustration  :     Suppose  I  enter 
a   house,  in  which   are    many  beautiful    engravings ; 
among  these  there  is  one  of  Holman  Hunt's  deeply 
suggestive  painting,  ''  The  Light  of  the  World,"  and 
from  that  it  is  easy  to  pass  to  the  text  which  the  pic- 
ture illustrates:    "Behold  I  stand  at  the  door  and 
knock."     Or  I  may  tell  the  following  story  about  the 
artist  who  produced  the  work  :     Some  seven  or  eight 
summers  ago  a  distinguished  non-conformist  divine  of 
England  was  a  guest  in  the  house  of  the  gentleman 
who  now  owns  the  original  painting.     At  the  time  of 
his  visit  the  picture  was  undergoing  the  process  of 
re-framing,   and  so  he  was  permitted  to  examine  it 
minutely.     In  one  of  the   lower  corners,  where   the 
words  would  in  ordinary  circumstances  have  been  cov- 
ered by  the  frame,  he  found  in  the  handwriting  of  the 
artist  himself  this  expression  :  "  Nee  me  praeiermittas 
Domine^'  "  Nor  pass  me  by,  O  Lord  !  "  and  so  from  the 
prayer  of  the  painter  a  very  natural  lesson,  all  the  more 
powerful  because  of  its  incidental  character,  may  be 
read  to  the  possessor  of  the  engraving. 

To  succeed  in  such  work  as  this,  however,  we  must 
cultivate  general  intelligence,  and  be  ever  on  the 
watch  for  incidents  and  illustrations  which  we  may 
use  thus  as  we  go  from  house  to  house.  "  Parlor 
preaching  "  is  in  its  own  place  only  inferior  in  impor- 
tance to  "  pulpit  preaching."  It  needs  great  wealth 
of  resources,  and,  most  of  all,  it  requires  that  habitual 
spiritually-mindedness  which  is  holding  fellowship 
with  Christ  even  in  the  commonest  occupations.  You 
will  never  succeed  in  your  visitation  if  you  go  to  it 


THE  PASTOR  A  TE  AND  PASTORAL  VI  SIT  A  TION.    279 

with  an  effort,  and  as  a  duty.  But  when  you  start 
out  for  the  love  of  Jesus,  and  in  His  name,  your  exer- 
cise will  be  a  joy  to  yourself  and  full  of  profit  to  those 
on  whom  you  call. 

Nor  will  the  benefit  of  it  be  only  direct.  It  will 
bring  the  families  whom  you  have  seen,  with  new  in- 
terest to  the  sanctuary,  and  put  their  minds  into  a 
state  of  greater  impressibility.  They  are  no  longer 
at  arm's  length  from  you.  They  have  grasped  your 
hand,  they  have  heard  your  heart-throb  in  their 
homes,  and  now  your  words  take  stronger  hold  upon 
their  souls.  John  Brown's  '  Jeames'  said,  in  regard  to 
prayer,  "There  is  no  good  done  till  we  come  to  close 
grips  with  God."  But  it  is  just  as  true  in  regard  to 
preaching  that  we  do  little  for  men  until  we  get  into 
personal  dealing  with  them.  If  I  am  firing  at  a  target 
with  a  rifle,  I  want  to  know  whether  I  have  hit  the 
bull's-eye.  And  if  I  am  in  earnest  in  preaching  on 
the  Lord's  day,  I  desire  to  discover  whether  any 
results  have  followed.  Now  it  is  only  through  pas- 
toral visitation  that  I  can  follow  up  my  sermons. 
Thus,  while  in  some  cases  it  lets  me  see  where  I  can 
drive  a  nail  to  advantage,  in  others  it  enables  me  to 
clinch  a  nail  which  I  have  already  driven. 

You  will  make  a  great  mistake,  therefore,  if  you 
undervalue  the  visitation  of  your  people.  The  pulpit 
is  your  throne,  no  doubt ;  but  then  a  throne  is  stable 
only  when  it  rests  on  the  affections  of  the  people, 
and  to  get  their  affections  you  must  visit  them  in  their 
dwellings.  I  used  to  look  upon  my  visitation  as  a 
dreadful  drudgery,  but  it  has  now  become  my  joy; 


28o  THE  MINISTRY  OF  THE   WORD. 

SO  that  whenever  I  am  tempted  to  despond  I  sally 
forth  to  visit  my  flock ;  and  as  I  look  sadly  back  upon 
those  early  years  in  which  I  had  no  such  gladness,  I 
am  earnestly  desirous  to  save  you  from  blundering  as 
I  did. 

Begin  this  work  as  your  pastorate  begins.  If  you 
cannot  fully  master  your  pulpit  preparations  at  first, 
so  as  to  secure  the  time  needful  for  systematic 
visitation,  yet  never  omit  the  care  of  the  sick  and 
the  afflicted ;  and  at  the  earliest  possible  moment 
enter  upon  the  regular  prosecution  of  this  important 
department  of  your  labors.  It  will  ''  mellow  and 
fatten  "  the  roots  of  your  own  character.  It  will  feed 
your  public  prayers.  It  will  furnish  many  themes 
and  suggestions  for  your  pulpit  teachings.  It  will 
cheer  you  on  in  a  thousand  ways  in  your  arduous 
exertions,  and  as  the  years  revolve  you  will  come  to 
be  regarded  almost  as  a  member  of  every  family,  and 
be  rewarded  by  the  confidence  and  affection  of  the  flock 
as  a  whole.  On  that  you  may  always  rest  as  securely 
as  the  swimmer  does  upon  the  wave;  and  your 
character  among  your  people  will  add  an  irresistible 
ingredient  to  the  eloquence  of  your  speech. 


LECTURE    XII. 

THE  RELATION  OF   THE  PULPIT  TO   PRESENT  QUES- 
TIONS. 


LECTURE     XII. 

THE   RELATION   OF  THE   PULPIT  TO   PRESENT   QUES- 
TIONS. 

~|  TE  who  would  be  successful  in  the  ministry  of  the 
J — L  Word  must  give  himself  wholly  to  it.  When 
the  apostles  responded  to  the  Master's  call  '^  they 
forsook  all  and  followed  Him ;"  and  no  one  who  is 
really  called  to  the  work  of  the  pastorate  will  be  able 
to  combine  with  that  any  other  occupation.  When 
Chalmers  was  first  settled  at  Kilmany  he  tried  to 
unite  with  his  ministry  the  teaching  of  mathematics 
and  chemistry  at  St.  Andrews,  and  assured  his  father 
that  Saturday  was  sufficient  for  the  preparation  of 
his  discourses.  But  after  he  had  passed  the  great 
crisis  of  his  life,  he  was  constrained  to  devote  every 
moment  of  his  time  and  every  energy  of  his  being  to 
the  duties  of  his  office.  And  every  earnest  pastor 
will  feel  as  he  then  did.  No  one  who  has  any  right 
idea  of  the  importance  of  the  ministry,  will  consent 
to  regard  it  as  a  merely  secondary  *or  subordinate 
thing.  He  will  not  be  able  to  satisfy  himself  with 
less  than  unreserved  consecration  to  his  calling ;  and 
if  he  is  to  preach  sermons  that  will  compel  men  to 
listen  to  them,  they  must  be  the  product  of  his  un- 
distracted  labor.  The  river  of  the  week  must  flow 
with   undivided   current   into  the    pulpit.     He   must 

(283) 


284  ^^^'    MINISTRY  OF    THE    WORD. 

live,  and  move,  and  have  his  being,  in  and  for  his 
work. 

He  cannot  afford,  as  a  regular  thing,  to  become  a 
peripatetic  lecturer,  or  to  be  the  principal  of  an  edu- 
cational establishment,  or  to  conduct  a  newspaper,  or 
to  devote  himself  to  some  field  of  scientific  inquiry. 
He  may  have  sufficient  ability  to  do  both  things. 
He  may  even,  by  dint  of  good  management  and  hard 
work,  contrive  to  secure  time  enough  for  both.  But 
his  heart  will  be  divided  between  them,  and  that  will 
be  fatal  to  his  efficiency  in  the  pulpit.  His  ministry 
fitiist  have  the  whole  of  him,  else  ere  long  the  ''  unc- 
tion "  will  evaporate  out  of  his  speech,  and  the  spell 
of  his  eloquence  will  be  broken. 

He  who  desires  success  as  a  preacher,  therefore, 
must  be  content  to  leave  many  other  things  alone. 
He  may  have  dreamed  in  early  years  of  winning  fame 
in  the  republic  of  letters,  or  of  rising  to  eminence  in 
some  scientific  pursuit,  but  all  such  ambitions  must 
now  be  given  up  for  Christ.  The  prizes  of  commerce 
and  the  honors  of  statesmanship  are  not  for  him.  He 
has  been  called  to  labor  in  another  field,  whereon  the 
harvests  are  immortal  souls ;  and  so  eager  is  he  in  its 
cultivation,  that  he  cannot  consent  to  give  any  part 
of  himself  to  other  engagements.  So  soon  as  he  does 
that,  the  joy  of  his  heart  will  disappear,  and  the  glory 
of  his  ministry  will  depart. 

Be  it  yours,  therefore,  uncompromisingly  to  resist 
every  overture  that  may  be  made  to  you  to  give  any 
part  of  your  time  and  strength,  as  a  constant  thing, 
to  any  other  object  than  your  ministry.     The  sucker 


THE  RELATION  OF   THE  PULPIT.  285 

in  the  end  will  kill  the  tree  ;  therefore  take  heed  that 
it  be  not  permitted  to  spring  up.  It  were  better  that 
you  should  renounce  the  ministry  altogether  than 
that  you  should  continue  in  it  half-heartedly,  giving 
the  greater  part  of  your  time  and  thoughts  to  some- 
thing else  than  the  feeding  and  shepherding  of  the 
flock  of  God. 

But  though  I  would  urge  you  to  keep  yourself  ex- 
clusively to  your  calling,  I  would  not  have  you  to 
adopt  a  narrow  or  restricted  idea  of  that  calling. 
You  have  range  enough  in  the  pulpit  to  satisfy  any 
ordinary  ambition  ;  and  it  is  at  once  your  privilege 
and  your  duty  there  to  bring  the  principles  and 
motives  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ  to  bear  upon  the  cir- 
cumstances of  your  times,  and  the  questions  that  are 
agitating  the  minds  of  men. 

Thus  there  are  many  social  subjects  intimately  con- 
nected with  the  welfare  of  the  people,  which  not  only 
may  be  treated  of,  but  which  ought  to  be  treated  of, 
in  the  pulpit.  Foremost  among  these  is  the  condi- 
tion of  a  large  proportion  of  the  poorer  classes  of  the 
land,  who,  in  popular  speech,  are  called  the  masses. 
What  ignorance,  intemperance,  immorality,  and  crime 
prevail  among  them  !  We  talk  of  heathenism  with 
horror,  but  there  are  multitudes  almost  at  our  own 
doors,  and  within  the  sound  of  our  church  bells,  who 
are  living  in  circumstances  as  debasing  as  any  to  be 
found  in  pagan  lands.  The  car  of  Juggernaut  has 
not  crushed  as  many  victims  as  intemperance  is  an- 
nually destroying  in  our  cities ;  and  India  has  no 
cruelties  more  horrid  than  those  which    are  almost 


286  THE  MINISTRY   OF    THE    WORD. 

nightly  committed  by  the  criminal  classes  in  our 
country.  What  dens  of  infamy  and  homes  of  sin 
there  are  in  all  our  cities,  infecting  by  their  impurity 
even  the  households  of  those  who  are  themselves 
ashamed  even  to  name  the  abominations  of  which 
they  are  the  scene  ! 

Then  in  another  department,  who  among  us  has  not 
been  filled  with  sad  forebodings  for  the  future,  as  he 
has  marked  the  growing  conflict  between  capital  and 
labor,  and  the  ever  increasing  estrangement  between 
employers  and  employed,  now  rumbling  ominously 
like  some  far-off  earthquake,  and  now  breaking  out 
into  the  volcanic  eruption  of  a  disastrous  strike? 
While  at  the  other  extremity  of  the  social  scale,  the 
luxury  and  extravagance,  the  ostentatious  rivalry  in 
the  keeping  up  of  appearances,  the  heartless  worldli- 
ness,  and  the  grasping  selfishness,  are  utterly  appall- 
ing. 

Now  these  are  things  that  the  Christian  preacher 
cannot  pass  by  on  the  other  side.  He  has  been  made 
a  minister  for  the  very  purpose  of  grappling  with 
them,  and  it  will  be  treachery  to  his  office  and  trea- 
son to  his  Lord,  if  he  refuse  to  deal  with  them.  They 
threaten  the  very  life  of  the  nation,  and  he  is  set  upon 
the  watch-tower  for  the  very  purpose  of  giving  an 
alarm.  Some  one  has  compared  the  republic  under 
which  we  live  to  a  pyramid,  having  its  base  composed 
of  the  great  masses  of  the  people,  and  rising  up,  nar- 
rowing as  it  rises,  through  legislatures,  judges,  and 
governors,  until  it  finds  its  apex  in  him  who  sits  in 
the  presidential  chair ;  and  it  is  alleged  that  this  is 


THE  RELATION  OF   THE  FULPIT.  28/ 

the  most  stable  form  of  government.  And  so  it  is, 
if  the  pyramid  be  composed  of  the  most  enduring 
materials.  But  if  the  base  be  honey-combed  with  in- 
temperance, the  central  portions  corroded  with  ex- 
travagance, and  the  upper  layers  disintegrated  by 
dishonesty,  how  long  will  the  whole  fabric  last  ? 

But  more  even  than  the  welfare  of  the  nation  is 
endangered  by  the  social  evils  of  which  we  speak. 
They  imperil  also  the  life  of  the  church.  Its  mem- 
bers cannot  live  in  the  neighborhood  of  such  things 
without  being  in  some  degree  contaminated.  If 
malaria  is  in  the  district,  you  cannot  confine  it  to  one 
house.  Its  influence  enters  more  or  less  into  every 
dwelling.  And  the  Church  and  the  State  are  not  so 
completely  separated,  even  in  this  land,  that  the  one 
cannot  be  affected  by  the  other.  Their  very  prox- 
imity to  each  other  makes  the  danger  of  the  one  a 
peril  also  to  the  other.  I  went  once  with  a  friend 
into  his  garden,  and,  observing  in  one  part  of  it,  a 
plentiful  crop  of  a  very  troublesome  weed,  I  asked 
him  how  he  came  to  have  so  much  of  it.  He  said, 
"  My  neighbor  was  absent  from  his  house  three 
months  last  year,  and  let  his  garden  run  wild  ;  it  was 
just  at  the  time  when  that  particular  weed  was  run- 
ning to  seed,  and  the  wind  blew  the  downy  things 
over  here.  It  would  have  paid  me  to  have  hired  a 
man  to  clean  his  garden  for  him,  but  then,  you  see,  I 
did  not  think  of  it  in  time."  So,  be  sure,  if  we  in  the 
church  allow  those  evils  in  the  community  to  go  on 
unchecked,  the  seeds  that  spring  from  them  will  blow 
over  into  our  own  garden,  and  produce  there  confu- 
sion and  every  evil  work. 


288  THE  MINISTRY  OF   THE    WORD. 

How  long  will  our  cities  be  safe  places  for  the 
godly  upbringing  of  our  sons  and  daughters,  if  we 
permit  the  impurity  and  iniquity  in  which  they 
abound  to  grow  rampant  in  the  midst  of  them  ?  The 
life  of  the  church,  therefore,  depends  on  its  aggres- 
siveness, and  the  ministers  of  the  Gospel  must  lead 
forth  their  people  to  this  new  crusade.  We  must 
not  allow  our  hearers  to  rest  contented  in  the  thought 
that  if  only  they  are  benefited,  and  gratified,  and 
comforted  by  our  discourses,  and  labors  in  the  midst 
of  them,  there  is  nothing  else  to  be  desired.  We  must 
rouse  them  to  a  sense  of  their  duty  to  those  around 
them  who  are  perishing  for  lack  of  knowledge ;  we 
must  urge  them  on,  by  the  highest  and  holiest  con- 
siderations, to  prayer  and  liberality,  and  personal  ex- 
ertion for  the  welfare  of  the  fallen  and  degraded  in 
the  land  ;  and  as  occasion  offers,  we  must  give  our- 
selves enthusiastically  to  evangelistic  work  in  the 
streets  or  lanes  by  which  our  stately  churches  are  sur- 
rounded. 

For  the  Gospel  which  we  preach  is  the  only  remedy 
that  can  meet  the  manifold  evils  of  society.  All 
these  are  only  so  many  different  symptoms  of  the  one 
disease  of  sin,  and  nothing  can  permanently  remove 
them  save  that  which  eradicates  it.  Hence  the  vari- 
ous agencies  which  men  have  proposed  and  experi- 
mented with  for  the  purpose  of  improving  the  condi- 
tion of  the  masses,  valuable  as  they  have  been  in 
some  respects,  have  failed  to  get  at  the  source  of  the 
evil.  They  have  "  skinned  and  filmed  the  ulcerous 
sore,"  but  left  the  constitutional  malady,  of  which  it 


THE  RELATION  OF  THE  PULPIT.  289 

was  the  symptom,  to  break  out  in  some  other  direc- 
tion. They  have  dammed  up  the  stream  for  a  little, 
and  sent  its  waters  over  into  places  which  were  before 
uncovered ;  but  they  have  not  dried  up  the  fountain- 
head.  The  only  thing  which  can  regenerate  society, 
is  that  which  can  regenerate  the  individual  heart,  to 
wit,  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost  working  in  and 
through  the  belief  of  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus.  Now 
as  we  are  set  not  merely  for  the  defence,  but  also  for 
the  diffusion  of  that  truth,  it  is  imperative  on  us  that 
we  stir  up  both  ourselves  and  our  people,  to  take 
means  for  proclaiming  it  to  the  outcasts  around  us. 
We  must  "  go  out  into  the  streets  and  lanes  of  the 
cities,  and  compel  them  to  come  in."  Most  evidently 
we  ministers  cannot  personally  carry  on  such  a  work, 
and  at  the  same  time  satisfy  all  the  demands  that  are 
made  upon  us  as  pastors,  especially  if  our  pastorate 
should  happen  to  be  in  a  great  city.  But  it  is  not 
necessary  that  we  should.  Our  object  ought  to  be  to 
stimulate  every  Christian  to  become  himself  a  home 
missionary ;  and  to  furnish  him,  week  by  week,  with 
truth  appropriate  for  his  use  in  that  capacity,  and 
with  motive  strong  enough  to  sustain  him  in  its  proc- 
lamation. We  should  aim  so  to  preach  that  no  idler  can 
remain  comfortable  under  our  ministrations,  and  we 
should  seek  by  a  wise  organization  to  realize  the  ideal 
of  Wesley  in  our  church,  "  At  work,  all  at  work,  and 
always  at  work."  EVERY  BELIEVER  A  MISSIONARY  ; 
that  must  be  our  watchword,  and  then  our  Sabbath 
services  will  be  the  rallying  points  at  which  we  come 
together  to  recruit  our  wearied  energies,  and   from 

13 


290  THE  MINISTRY  OF  THE   WORD. 

which  we  go  forth  with  new  enthusiasm  to  our  holy 
work.  Admirably  has  it  been  said  by  the  author  of 
"  Ecce  Homo  "  :  ''  Men  who  meet  within  the  church 
walls  on  Sunday,  should  not  meet  as  strangers  who 
find  themselves  together  in  the  same  lecture  hall ; 
but  as  co-operators  in  a  public  work,  the  object  of 
which  all  understand,  and  to  his  own  department  of 
which  each  man  habitually  applies  mind  and  his 
contriving  power.  Thus  meeting,  with  the  esprit  de 
corps  strong  among  them,  and  with  a  clear  perception 
of  the  purpose  of  their  union  and  their  meeting,  they 
would  not  desire  that  the  exhortation  of  the  preacher 
should  be  what  in  the  nature  of  things  it  seldom  can 
be — eloquent.  ...  It  might  then  become  weighty 
with  business,  and  impressive  as  an  officer's  address 
to  his  troops  before  a  battle.  For  it  would  be  ad- 
dressed by  a  soldier  to  soldiers,  in  the  presence  of  an 
enemy  whose  character  they  understood,  and  in  a  war 
with  whom  they  had  given  and  received  telling 
blows."  * 

But  even  when  we  have  got  all  our  people  up  to 
the  working  point,  there  will  be  need  for  some  central 
agency  round  which  their  operations  must  be  con- 
ducted ;  and  I  cannot  but  think  that  the  enterprise 
which  Christian  men  are  now  carrying  on  in  the  city 
of  New  York,  is  designed,  in  the  Providence  of  God, 
to  lead  to  some  developments  in  home  missionary 
matters  which  shall  be  fraught  with  blessing  to  the 
land. 


*  "Ecce  Homo,"  pp.  225,  226. 


THE  RELATION  OF  THE  PULPIT.  29 1 

For  one  thing  it  has  shown,  that  the  lowest  stratum 
of  the  population  can  be  reached  with  the  Gospel. 
In  conversation  with  a  friend  the  other  day,  I  learned 
that  the  missionary  who  labors  in  the  Tombs,  informed 
him  that  the  number  of  prisoners  was  smaller  than  it 
had  been  for  a  long  time,  and  he  traced  that  state  of 
things  to  the  fact  that  the  roughs  of  the  city  were  at- 
tending at  the  Hippodrome,  and  so  were  at  least  kept 
out  of  mischief  thereby.  And  this  testimony  was 
strikingly  confirmed  by  one  of  the  police  who  are  in  reg- 
ular waiting  at  the  Hippodrome.  He  told  my  inform- 
ant that  on  the  first  night  of  the  services,  he  was  posi- 
tively alarmed  to  see  such  a  collection  of  the  "  hard- 
est "  criminals  of  the  city  in  the  section  of  the  hall 
under  his  care.  He  feared  that  they  might  attempt 
some  outbreak,  but  they  sat  quietly  all  through,  and 
the  greater  number  of  them  come  now  every  night. 
Another  friend  mentioned  to  me  that  while  he  was 
in  the  inquiry-room  a  man  came  to  him  in  great 
distress,  under  the  deepest  conviction  of  sin,  saying 
to  him,  "  I  did  not  come  here  to  seek  salvation ;  I 
came  to  pick  pockets ;  but  the  Lord  has  laid  hold  of 
me,  and  I  mean  to  turn  to  Him."  Now  these  inci- 
dents show  that  the  people  can  be  reached.  They 
will  come  to  hear  the  Gospel  when  they  have  a  fitting 
opportunity,  and  the  Gospel  is  in  their  case  also  "  the 
power  of  God  unto  salvation." 

Again,  these  services  show  that  some  men  are  bet- 
ter qualified  than  others  for  reaching  these  classes. 
It  is  needless  to  attempt  to  analyze  the  elements  of 
Mr.  Moody's  and    Mr.    Sankey's    power.     They   are 


292  THE  MINISTRY  OF  THE   WORD. 

men,  I  believe,  as  truly  raised  up  by  God  for  their 
work  as  were  Wesley  and  Whitefield,  Nettleton  and 
Finney ;  and  their  success  is  their  attestation.  Now 
does  not  this  indicate  to  us  that  when  a  man  shows 
such  eminent  fitness  for  this  particular  work,  he  should 
be  at  once  laid  hold  of,  and  statedly  employed  in  it  ? 
We  have  got  into  certain  ecclesiastical  ruts,  and  are 
in  danger  of  sacrificing  life  to  order.  Why  should  we 
not,  however,  have  even  this  great  benefit  in  an 
orderly  way?  There  are  men  who  could  do  nothing 
or  next  to  nothing  as  pastors,  who  would  yet  be  be- 
yond all  price  as  peripatetic  evangelists.  What 
hinders  that  they  should  be  at  once  recognized  in 
that  character,  and  sent  forth  from  city  to  city  and 
from  village  to  village,  two  and  two,  like  the  first  dis- 
ciples? It  seems  to  me  that  if  such  a  plan  were 
adopted,  we  might  have,  not  in  one  city  only,  but  in 
every  city  of  the  Union,  some  earnest  and  attractive 
man  of  God  laboring  with  a  power  only  second  to 
that  which  is  attending  the  Lord's  messengers  in 
New  York  to-day. 

Still  farther,  these  services  show  that  Christian  co- 
operation between  the  members  of  different  denomi- 
nations is  a  possible  thing.  In  the  inquiry-rooms  at 
the  Hippodrome  you  will  find  Episcopalians,  Baptists, 
Methodists,  Presbyterians,  Congregationalists,  all 
earnestly  at  work  in  seeking  to  point  souls  to  Christ. 
Now  if  all  this  may  last  for  two  months,  why  should 
it  not  last  for  years?  Could  we  not  have  a  per- 
manent Hippodrome  in  New  York,  supplied  by  men 
whom   God   may  raise  up,  and  officered,  as  it  is  to- 


THE  RELATIOi^f  GF  THE  PULPIT.  293 

day,  by  Christians  of  all  evangelical  denominations  ? 
And  have  we  not  in  this  a  gleam  of  light  thrown 
upon  that  darkest,  saddest  social  problem  of  our 
times,  how  to  elevate  the  masses  of  our  large  cities  ? 
But  whatever  else  may  or  may  not  be  done,  thus 
much  is  clear,  that  every  minister  should  stir  up  his 
people  to  personal  exertion  in  this  great  cause.  You 
may  say,  indeed,  that  he  cannot  be  always  preaching 
upon  it ;  and  if  you  mean  by  that,  that  he  is  not  to 
be  expected  to  be  continually  discoursing  set  sermons 
on  the  evil  of  intemperance  and  how  to  meet  it,  or  on 
the  claims  of  the  non-church-going  population  on  the 
attention  of  the  church,  or  on  the  different  branches 
of  that  upas  tree  which  is  poisoning  our  social  life, 
you  are  probably  right.  That  course  might  aggravate 
and  irritate,  instead  of  stimulating  to  work.  But 
while  he  may  occasionally  preach  an  entire  sermon 
upon  some  one  particular  evil,  and  show  how  the 
Gospel  is  to  be  brought  to  bear  upon  it,  he  will  be 
wiser  if  he  deal  with  all  such  questions  incidentally,  and 
if  after  he  has  conclusively  established  some  general 
principles,  he  should  turn  unexpectedly  upon  his  hear- 
ers and  show  them  how  these  are  to  be  applied  to 
present  circumstances.  It  is  just  here,  indeed,  that  he 
will  be  able  to  turn  his  habit  to  consecutive  exposition 
of  most  valuable  account.  For  no  matter  where  he  be- 
gins such  a  work,  he  will  not  go  on  very  far  without 
finding  some  excellent  opportunity  of  saying  some- 
thing on  these  social  subjects  that  may  ^'  strike  and 
stick."  He  can  scarcely  open  the  very  first  book  of 
Scripture  without   coming  upon   the   excuse   of  the 


294  THE  MINISTR  V  OF  THE   WORD. 

selfish  fratricide,  ''Am  I  my  brother's  keeper?"  and 
he  will  be  no  faithful  shepherd  if  he  do  not  from  that 
expose  the  Cain-like  spirit  of  too  many  of  our  modern 
hearers  of  the  Gospel.  Not  many  chapters  more  shall 
have  passed  before  he  confronts  the  drunkenness  of 
Noah  and  Lot,  and  the  fearful  consequences  that 
sprung  out  of  the  defilement  of  Dinah,  and  in  these  he 
will  have  unsought  and  incidental  opportunities  for 
the  proclamation  of  truths,  which  are  too  often  utterly 
ignored  in  the  pulpit.  So  again,  if  he  take  up  the 
sweet  pastoral  of  Ruth,  he  will  not  go  far  until  he 
hear  the  mutual  greeting  of  Boaz  and  his  reapers 
when  he  said  unto  them,  "  The  Lord  be  with  you," 
and  they  answered  him,  "  The  Lord  bless  thee,"  and 
that  will  give  him  scope  enough  for  treating  the  whole 
question  as  between  employers  and  employed,  and 
suggest  the  true  and  only  remedy,  namely,  the  com- 
mon brotherhood  of  both  in  the  Lord.  And  if  he  go 
on  through  the  history  of  the  Kings,  he  may  find  a 
lesson  for  the  ostentation  of  the  times  in  the  fact  that 
the  display  which  Hezekiah  made  of  his  treasures  be- 
fore the  eyes  of  the  Assyrian  ambassadors  was  im- 
mediately followed  by  the  invasion  of  the  Assyrian 
host. 

If  he  should  open  the  New  Testament,  he  cannot 
expound  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  without  coming 
down  with  withering  power  upon  the  evils  of  the 
times ;  or  enforce  the  parable  of  the  Good  Samaritan 
without  stirring  up  his  people  to  sacrifice  their  money 
and  their  comfort  for  the  good  of  others.  In  a  word, 
he  cannot  stand  beneath  the  cross  and  contemplate 


THE  RE  LA  TION  OF  THE  PULPIT. 


^95 


the  sacrifice  which  Christ  made  there  for  sinners  of 
mankind,  without  crying  out  himself,  and  leading 
others  to  cry  out,  ''  What  shall  I  render  to  the  Lord 
for  all  His  benefits?"  and  they  cannot  present  such  a 
prayer  sincerely  without  having  their  eyes  opened  to 
see  the  poor  half-dead  ones  whom  sin  has  wounded 
and  cruelty  has  scarred,  lying  all  around,  waiting  for 
a  brother's  help.  Thus  his  pulpit  will  become  a 
center  of  influence,  the  results  of  which  may  tell  on 
thousands  whom  he  has  never  seen.  My  young 
brethren,  aim  at  making  your  pulpits  such  centers ; 
take  as  your  motto  the  words  of  Robert  Nicol  when 
he  left  his  Perthshire  home  for  the  editorial  chair, 
''  We'll  make  the  world  better  yet."  Shake  off  all 
slothfulness  and  indifference.  Go  forth,  trusting  in 
the  might,  and  the  majesty,  and  the  grace  of  Him 
whom  you  serve,  and  He  will  make  you  the  means  of 
salvation  to  multitudes.  Linger  not,  for  while  you 
delay,  souls  are  going  down  to  an  undone  eternity. 
Falter  not,  for  greater  is  He  that  is  in  you  than  he  that 
is  in  the  world  ;  and  when  men  would  urge  you  to  sit 
still,  make  answer  in  the  words  of  the  noble  Port 
Royalist,  '^  What !  shall  we  not  have  a  whole  eternity 
to  rest  in?"  or  in  the  loftier  words  of  the  Master 
himself,  "  I  must  work  the  work  of  him  that  sent  me 
while  it  is  day ;  the  night  cometh  when  no  man  can 
work." 

But  there  is  another  class  of  subjects  concerning 
which  it  may  be  well  to  define  somewhat  precisely  the 
province  of  the  pulpit.     I  refer  now  to  the  political. 


2q6  'J'JiE  MINISTRY  OF  THE   WORD. 

The  Christian  is  a  citizen  as  well  as  a  saint,  and  he 
should  manifest  his  piety  in  the  discharge  of  his  civic 
duties.  Hence  it  is  clearly  within  the  range  of  the 
pulpit  to  insist  occasionally  on  the  importance  of 
Christians  taking  a  practical  interest  in  political  mat- 
ters. It  has  come  to  pass  among  us  that  all  such 
things  are  left,  I  will  not  say  exclusively,  but  largely, 
to  those  who  have  no  regard  for  the  Gospel  of  Christ ; 
and  so  the  whole  class  of  men  who  engage  in  them  is 
brought  under  reproach.  Now  that  is  a  sore  evil,  not 
only  for  the  State,  but  for  the  Church.  The  State  can- 
not be  entrusted  to  the  management  of  such  men 
without  suffering  detriment ;  and  the  members  of  the 
Church  cannot  live  in  the  habitual  neglect  of  a  positive 
duty  without  entailing  some  injury  upon  themselves. 
Let  the  minister,  therefore,  when  a  fitting  opportunity 
comes,  exhort  Christians  earnestly  to  assume  their 
proper  responsibility  as  citizens.  Let  him  show  that 
it  is  as  much  a  privilege  and  a  duty  to  take  part  in 
the  details  of  civil  government,  as  it  is  to  participate 
in  the  ordinances  of  religious  worship ;  and  let  him 
exhort  all  to  take  their  Christianity  with  them  in  the 
exercise  of  their  civil  rights,  and  to  go  to  the  ballot- 
box  with  as  thorough  a  resolution  to  serve  God  there 
as  they  make  when  they  are  going  to  the  communion 
table.  This  is  the  only  way  to  purify  our  political 
life ;  and  if  the  ministers  of  the  Gospel  shall  not  urge 
their  people  to  adopt  it,  how  is  relief  to  be  obtained  ? 
"  Ye  are  the  salt  of  the  earth  :  but  if  the  salt  have  lost 
its  savor,  wherewith  shall  ft  be  salted?  it  is  thence- 
forth good  for  nothing  but  to  be  cast  out  and  trodden 
under  foot  of  men." 


THE  RELATION  OF  THE  PULPIT. 


297 


But,  while  it  is  the  duty  of  the  preacher  thus  to 
seek  to  purify  and  elevate  political  life,  by  showing 
that  it  is  only  one  department  of  Christian  activity, 
he  must  not  use  his  pulpit  in  the  interests  of  any 
party  in  the  State.  He  is  a  citizen  as  well  as  other 
men,  and  ought  to  avail  himself  of  his  privileges  as  such, 
but  it  is  a  fair  matter  for  argument  whether  or  not  he 
should  ever  all(^w  himself  to  become  prominent  on 
either  of  the  two  sides  into  which  politicians  are 
divided.  It  is  conceivable,  however,  that  the  ques- 
tions under  discussion  may  have  such  moral  and 
religious  bearings  that  he  feels  compelled  to  use  his 
influence  for  one  rather  than  another,  and  at  such  a 
time  he  may,  in  my  judgment,  give  public  utterance 
to  his  sentiments,  and  seek  to  enforce  the  reasons 
which  have  commended  them  to  his  adoption.  But 
he  must  not  do  so  in  the  pulpit.  He  must  go  for 
such  a  purpose  to  the  political  platform,  and  take  his 
chance  of  being  met  by  counter-argument  or  demon- 
strations of  dissent.  The  pulpit  gives  no  opportunity 
of  reply- to  the  hearer;  and  it  is  not  only  unseemly, 
but  unfair  for  its  occupant  to  take  advantage  of  the 
battlements  within  which  he  is  there  entrenched  for 
the  firing  of  a  party  gun.  Let  him  have  the  courage 
of  his  convictions,  and  go  with  his  speech  where  men 
can  hiss  at  him  or  ansv/er  him  if  they  choose.  But 
let  him  not  request  people  to  come  to  the  sanctuary 
for  the  worship  of  God,  and  then  take  advantage  of 
the  fact  that  he  has  it  all  his  own  way,  for  ''  pitching 
in  "  to  them  on  some  political  question.  His  appear- 
ance in  the  political  arena  will  be  all  the  more  effect- 

13* 


298 


THE  MINISTR  V  OF   THE   WORD. 


ive  if  it  be  known  that  he  has  kept  all  partizanship 
out  of  the  house  of  God. 

There  may  be  exceptional  times,  as  when  the  crisis 
of  some  great  agony  or  conflict  is  upon  the  nation, 
when  it  may  be  imperative  on  the  preacher  to  take  the 
matter  with  him  into  the  pulpit ;  but  in  all  ordinary 
cases  when  he  carries  party  politics  into  the  sanctuary, 
he  is  doing  a  certain  evil  for  the  attainment  of  an  un- 
certain good,  which,  after  all,  even  if  certain,  might  be 
as  well  attained  elsewhere.  He  may  please  some,  but 
he  will  undoubtedly  so  irritate  others  as  to  turn  them 
away  from  him  even  when  he  is  dealing  in  those  faith- 
ful sayings  which  are  "  worthy  of  all  acceptation." 

Some  will  say  that  by  giving  this  advice  I  am  ad- 
vocating a  cowardly  policy.  But  it  is  quite  otherwise. 
The  cowardice  will  consist  in  the  minister's  sheltering 
himself  behind  the  safeguards  of  the  pulpit.  It  is  an 
easy  thing  to  be  vehement  and  demonstrative,  and 
even  defiant,  when  a  man  knows  that  nobody  then 
present  has  the  right  to  peep  or  mutter  either  in  dis- 
sent or  in  reply.  The  true  courage  will  consist  in 
going  to  fight  the  battle,  where  a  battle  is  possible — 
on  the  political  platform,  and  seeking  there  to  win  the 
day  for  truth,  for  purity,  and  for  freedom. 

Even  that,  however,  should  be  the  rare  exception 
with  the  minister  of  Christ,  and  he  should  take  such 
a  course  only  when  some  sacred  right  of  humanity  is 
assailed,  or  some  moral  principle  is  in  danger  of  being 
violated,  or  some  matter  of  religious  liberty  and 
equality  is  imperilled. 

Generally  speaking,  he  will  serve  the  nation  best  by 


THE  RELATION  OF  THE  PULPIT. 


299 


adhering  to  his  high  spiritual  vocation  ;  for  the  pros- 
perity of  the  country  depends  on  the  character  of 
the  people,  and  nothing  can  make  and  mould  char- 
acter like  the  Gospel  of  Christ. 

But  I  pass  now  to  an  entirely  different  class  of 
questions,  which  in  their  own  department  are  not  less 
important  than  those  to  which  I  have  already  alluded. 
I  mean  those  which  have  been  developed  by  the  ad- 
vancement of  science.  It  has  been  alleged  that  the 
statements  of  the  Word  of  God  are  inconsistent  with 
the  discoveries  of  our  physical  philosophers. 

Now,  here,  my  first  counsel  is,  that  in  relation  to 
all  such  subjects  the  preacher  should  not  be  an 
alarmist.  Do  not  give  your  people  the  idea  that  the 
revelation  of  God  is  endangered  by  every  fragment 
of  a  '^jaw^-bone"  that  may  be  discovered  at  '' Abbe- 
ville "  or  elsewhere.  Be  open  and  receptive  towards 
sicence.  If  on  its  own  evidence  the  Bible  is  true,  you 
may  be  sure  that  in  the  end  no  other  truth  can  harm 
it.  It  betrays  weakness  in  the  defenders  of  the  Word 
of  God  when  they  are  so  excited  about  little  things. 
Besides,  they  have  no  need  to  be  afraid.  The  fact  of 
Christ's  resurrection  from  the  dead  is  not  to  be  im- 
perilled by  any  question  concerning  chronology  or  the 
antiquity  of  the  race. 

Again,  do  not  be  always  attacking  scientific  men. 
Nothing  has  been  more  painful  to  me  in  listening  to 
discourses,  especially  from  young  men,  than  to  hear 
the  light  and  flippant  tone  in  which  some  of  the 
greatest    discoverers    of  the    age    were    alluded    to. 


300  THE  MINISTRY  OF    THE    WORD. 

They  communicated  the  impression  that  there  is 
some  special  affinity  between  science  and  infideHty. 
But  that  is  very  far,  indeed,  from  being  the  case. 
The  noble  Faraday  was  as  conspicuous  for  his  hum- 
ble faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  as  he  was  for  his 
marvellous  researches  into  magnetism  and  its  related 
sciences ;  and  during  the  meetings  of  the  British  As- 
sociation for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  a  year  or 
two  ago,  at  Edinburgh,  there  were  maintained  by 
some  of  its  members,  morning  gatherings  for  prayer, 
as  remarkable  in  their  character  as  those  which  are 
held  at  the  anniversary  of  the  American  Board 
among  ourselves.  Therefore^  it  is  not  only  ungener- 
ous, but  untrue,  to  insinuate  that  science  inevitably 
leads  to  scepticism. 

Furthermore,  do  not  attempt  to  answer  any  of  the 
objections  raised  by  some  men  of  science,  unless  you 
have  fully  and  fairly  mastered  the  subject  from  their 
point  of  view.  It  is  unfortunate  that  on  each  side  of 
this  modern  debate,  much  ignorance  prevails  regard- 
ing the  department  of  the  other.  Scientific  investi- 
gators have  not  had  a  theological  training.  The  ten- 
dency of  their  pursuits,  as  Jouffroy  has  well  said,  is 
"to  concentrate  all  their  minds  in  their  eyes  and 
hands."  They  are  apt,  therefore,  to  have  no  proper 
appreciation  of  moral  evidence,  and  to  ignore  the  in- 
tuitions of  the  soul  itself  But  in  theologians  we 
have  just  the  opposite  evil.  They  have  had  no  scien- 
tific training,  and  in  their  vivid  realization  of  the  im- 
portance of  spiritual  trutl\  they  are  apt  to  depreciate 
the    labors    of  the    physical    philosopher.      Now,    in 


THE  RELATION  OF  THE  PULPIT. 


301 


these  circumstances  it  will  be  foolish,  not  to  say  fool- 
hardy, in  you  to  attack  the  positions  of  the  man  of 
science,  unless  you  are  equally  familiar  with  the  sub- 
ject with  himself.  The  true  mediators  here  must  be 
men  who  can  lay  their  hands  upon  both  parties,  and 
who  have  the  piety  of  the  Christian,  combined  with 
the  insight  and  comprehension  of  the  man  of  science. 
It  will  be  well,  therefore,  to  leave  the  harmonizing  of 
the  two  to  such  men  as  are  equally  at  home  in  both 
departments.  A  lumbering  and  ineffective  reply  is  a 
thousand  times  worse  than  none  ;  and  if  you  cannot 
speak  with  the  authority  of  conclusiveness,  the  best 
thing  you  can  do  is  to  lead  sinful  souls  to  Christ,  and 
let  them  receive  from  Him  such  experimental  evi- 
dence of  the  reality  of  His  salvation  as  no  power  of 
infidelity  will  ever  shake. 

But,  without  attempting  to  answer  the  objections 
which  have  been  raised  from  modern  discovery,  you 
may  do  good  service  occasionally  by  pointing  out 
where  precisely  the  discrepancies  emerge.  The  scien- 
tific man  believes  in  the  infallibility  of  nature ;  the 
theologian  believes  in  the  infallibility  of  Scripture  ; 
and  the  differences,  of  which  so  much  is  made  in  these 
days,  lie,  not  between  nature  and  revelation  in  them- 
selves, but  between  human  interpretations  of  them. 
The  man  of  science  interprets  his  facts  in  a  certain 
way,  and  makes  certain  deductions  from  them.  These 
interpretations  and  deductions,  however,  are  not  in- 
fallible ;  they  are  not  yet  all  unquestioningly  received 
by  scientific  men  themselves.  It  is  too  soon,  there- 
fore, to  speak  and  reason,  as  if  they  were  absolutely 
correct. 


302 


THE  M I XI S TRY  OF  7 BE   WORD. 


Again,  the  theologian's  interpretations  of  Scripture 
are  by  no  means  infalKble.  Many  of  them  which 
were  accepted  in  past  days,  have  been  disproved  and 
others  substituted  for  them ;  and  of  many  more  it 
must  be  said  that  they  are  still  unsettled.  For  in- 
stance, he  would  be  a  rash  man  who  should  assert 
that  he  has  discovered,  with  infallible  accuracy,  the 
meaning  of  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis ;  or  should 
affirm  that  he  can  satisfactorily  unravel  the  chro- 
nology of  the  early  chapters  of  that  book.  These 
questions,  and  many  others  like  them,  are  still  sub 
Judice,  and  the  wise  course  for  all  parties  to  this 
modern  misunderstanding  is  to  wait,  with  mutual  re- 
spect for  each  other,  until  God,  in  His  providence  and 
by  His  spirit,  shall  lead  to  such  interpretations  of 
nature  on  the  one  hand  and  of  Scripture  on  the  other, 
as  shall  make  manifest  their  perfect  harmony.  Let 
the  man  of  science  go  on  with  perseverance,  and  let 
him  not  take  any  mischievous  delight  in  flinging  his 
hypotheses  at  the  Word  of  God.  Let  the 'theologian 
also  prosecute  his  inquiries  with  diligence  and  de- 
voutness,  and  let  him  give  over  calling  men  of  science 
by  evil  names.  They  seem  often  to  be  working 
against  each  other ;  but  they  are  in  reality  working 
for  each  other  and  for  the  truth.  In  the  formation 
of  the  tunnel  through  Mont  Cenis,  the  workmen 
began  at  opposite  ends,  and  approached  each  other 
with  driving  machines  apparently  directed  against 
each  other,  but  met  at  length  in  the  middle  to  con- 
gratulate each  other  on  the  completion  of  their  great 
undertaking,  because  they  were  working  under  thq 


THE  RELATION  OF  THE  PULPIT. 


303 


same  supervision.  So  it  will  be  with  our  theologians 
and  men  of  science.  God,  the  great  architect  of  prov- 
idence, is  superintending  both ;  and  by  and  by, 
through  the  labors  of  both,  the  mountain  of  difficulty 
will  be  tunnelled  through,  no  more  to  form  a  barrier 
in  the  inquirer's  way. 

You  may  do  much  also  in  this  matter  by  calling  at- 
tention to  such  principles  as  these,  namely :  that  the 
Bible  was  not  designed  to  be  a  revelation  of  physical 
science ;  that  its  references  to  all  such  subjects  are 
merely  incidental,  and  made  in  popular  language  ; 
that,  if  it  had  alluded  to  such  subjects  in  other  than 
popular  language,  it  would  have  been  unintelligible 
to  those  to  whom  it  was  first  given,  and  would  have 
been  rejected  by  them  for  containing  that  which 
some  modern  philosophers  complain  that  it  does  not 
contain  ;  that,  considering  the  fact  that  it  refers  only 
incidentally  to  these  topics,  its  language  concerning 
some  of  them  is  occasionally  very  striking,  and  fully 
in  harmony  with  modern  discoveries ;  and  finally, 
that  considering  the  course  of  things  in  the  past,  and 
how  what  seemed  at  one  time  to  be  in  hopeless  an- 
tagonism to  God's  Word,  is  now  held  intelligently  and 
consistently  with  it,  the  wise  course  will  be  for  both 
sides  to  wait  before  the  one  tries  to  prove  that  there 
is  contradiction,  or  the  other  to  enforce  a  harmony. 

Moreover,  we  should  not  allow  it  to  be  forgotten 
that,  all  advances  of  modern  science  notwithstanding, 
there  will  ever  be  deep,  solemn,  all-important  ex- 
periences in  the  human  soul  which  only  God's  Gospel 
can  meet ;  and  if  we  dig  down  to  these  we  shall  go  so 


304 


THE   MINISTRY  OF   THE    WORD. 


much  lower  than  science,  that  the  water  which  she  has 
apparently  drawn  from  our  well  will  return  into  our 
spring.  There  will  still  be  the  poison  of  sin,  which  no 
earthly  antidote  can  neutralize,  and  which  can  be 
counteracted  only  by  the  blood  of  the  Redeemer's 
cross.  There  will  still  be  the  sorrow  of  bereavement,  to 
be  solaced  only  by  the  vision  of  the  angel  at  the  door 
of  the  sepulchre,  and  the  hearing  of  his  soothing 
words,  '^  Why  seek  ye  the  living  among  the  dead  ? 
He  is  not  here ;  He  is  risen  as  He  said  ;  come  see  the 
place  where  the  Lord  lay."  There  will  still  be  the 
sense  of  lonesomeness  stealing  over  the  heart,  even 
amid  the  bustle,  and  business,  and  prosperity  of  the 
world,  to  be  dispelled  only  by  the  consciousness  of 
the  Saviour's  presence.  There  will  still  be  the  spirit- 
shudder  at  the  thought  of  death,  which  only  faith  in 
Christ  can  change  into  the  desire  to  depart  and  to  be 
with  Him,  which  is  far  better.  For  these  things 
science  has  no  remedy,  and  philosophy  no  solace,  and, 
strong  in  its  adaptation  to  these  irrepressible  necessi- 
ties of  the  human  heart,  the  Gospel  of  Christ  will  out- 
live all  philosophical  attack  and  survive  every  form  of 
scientific  unbelief. 

But  though  all  that  is  true,  I  would  not  have  you 
speak  of  Religion  and  Science  as  if  they  were  antag- 
onists. They  are  elder  and  younger  sister  in  the 
same  family ;  and  though  occasionally  they  may 
seem  to  be  at  variance,  yet  let  but  some  deep 
grief  enter  into  the  home,  or  some  heavy  calamity 
fall  upon  the  dwelling,  and  all  misunderstanding 
between    them    will  disappear;  they  will  lock  them- 


THE  RELATION  OF  THE  PULPIT.  305 

selves  in  each  other's  arms,  and  science  will  find 
her  resting-place  on  the  bosom  of  religion.  You 
can  afford,  therefore,  to  bid  science  God-speed ! 
Her  triumphs  will  in  the  end  contribute  to  the  Gos- 
pel's advancement.  Is  it  not  written,  "  All  things  are 
yours"?  And  you  may  rest  assured  that  truth  in 
one  department  can  never  falsify  that  which,  on  its 
own  evidence,  has  been  already  ascertained  to  be  true 
in  another. 

And  now,  gentlemen,  I  have  reached  the  end  of  my 
labors  among  you  ;  and  while  there  is  a  sense  of 
liberty  in  my  heart,  to  which  for  months  it  has  been 
a  stranger,  inasmuch  as  I  have  now  relieved  myself 
of  that  load  of  responsibility  which  my  acceptance  of 
this  Lectureship  put  upon  me,  yet  I  cannot  part  from 
you,  with  whom  I  have  been  brought  even  so  slightly 
into  contact,  without  some  emotion.  I  trust  that  I 
have  said  nothing  that  may  tend  to  lower  your  ideal 
of  the  office  of  the  ministry,  or  to  damp  the  ardor  of 
your  enthusiasm  as  you  look  forward  to  its  holy  call- 
ing. You  have  before  you  the  noblest  work  that  is 
given  man  to  do  upon  the  earth.  You  will  have 
cares,  and  trials,  and  sorrows,  which  sometimes  may 
be  heavier  than  those  of  others ;  but  you  will  have 
also  joys,  that  are  more  thrilling  and  enduring.  I 
have  seen  many  varieties  of  experience  among  my 
fellow-men,  and  have  had  many  ups  and  downs  in  my 
own  ministry.  There  are  many  things  which  I  should 
not  do  again  if,  with  my  present  knowledge,  I  were 
permitted  to  begin  life  once  more.      But  even  if  that 


3o6  THE  MINISTRY  OF   THE    WORD. 

Opportunity  were  afforded  me,  I  would  choose  again 
to  be  a  minister  of  the  Gospel,  only  with  more  enthu- 
siasm and  self-sacrifice  than  ever.  I  desire  to  say 
with  the  sainted  Henry  Martyn,  ''  Thank  God,  I  am 
Christ's  minister."  CJirisfs  minister.  Let  that  thought 
fill  your  souls,  and  then  your  service  will  be  of  the 
best.  Be  not  like  the  cuckoo,  whose  ever  changeless 
song  is  the  repetition  of  its  own  name.  Resemble 
rather  the  little  sky-lark  of  my  native  land,  which 
rises  ever,  singing  as  it  soars,  until,  itself  unseen,  it 
rains  a  shower  of  melody  upon  the  listening  earth. 
Forget  yourselves.  Seek  only  and  always  the  good 
of  souls  and  the  glory  of  the  Lord,  then  added  to 
your  own  happiness  will  be  the  joy  of  every  one 
whom  you  have  brought  to  Christ ;  and  in  the  end 
^'  When  the  chief  Shepherd  shall  appear,  ye  shall  re- 
ceive a  crown  of  glory  that  fadeth  not  away."  On 
that  day  may  I  be  a  witness  of  your  happiness  and  a 
sharer  of  your  reward ! 


PASSAGES  OF  SCRIPTURE  QUOTED  OR 
REFERRED  TO. 


Exodus,  iv.  lo 39 

"        xviii.  i8 264 

"        xxxiv.  29 20, 175 

Joshua  iii.  4 174 

"        xviii.  3 175 

Judges,  ii.  12    . 175 

"       vi.  11-15 39 

"       xvi.  20 175 

"       xviii.  4 175 

2  Chron.  xxv.  9 40 

Psalm  Ivii.  7,  8 212 

Eccles.  xii.    10,  ij: 108 

Isaiah  vi.  1-8 39 

"     xxviii.  24-26 97 

"1-4 45 

"     Ixi.  1-3 104 

Jeremiah,  xx.  9 133 

"           xxvi,  2 141 

Ezekiel  xxxiii.  7,  8 142 

Amos  viii.  11 213 

Matthew,  v.  13 222 

"        xiv.  14 147 

"         XV.  32 148 

"          XX.  26-28 ID 

"        xxviii.  20 142 

Mark,  vi.  ?6 41 

Luke,  iv.  16 213 

"      V.  1-16 39 

"         XV.  29,  30 222 

"      xxii.  26,  27 10 

John,  i.  I 221 

ii.  24,  25 45 

"       iii.  14,  16 82 

"       iv.  18 222 

"       iv.  23 210 

"       xii.  25 141 

"       xii.  32 82 

Acts,  iv.  13       143 

"      iv.  20 133 

"     iv.  31 139 

"      X.  33 207 

"     xiv.  I 6 

"     xvii.  16 45 

"     xix.  25 40 


Acts,  XX.  27 139 

"       XX.  31 144 

Romans,  i.  16 143 

"        iii.  25,  26 82 

''         iii.  31 89 

"        xii.  6 168 

"             xii.   18 221 

"         xvi.  3     ......     ,  41 

1  Corinthians,  i.  13 100 

"     ^       i.  23 82 

"     '        ii.  2 82 

"              V.  7,  8 100 

'^             vi.  19,  20     ...     .  100 

"             ix.  19 13 

"             XV.  3-5 82 

"             XV.  53 221 

2  Corinthians,  i.  4 37 

j-  24 13 

"             iv.  2 17 

"             iv.  5 12 

''             iv.  13 134 

"              v.  19 81 

"             V.  21 82 

"              viii.  9 loi 

"              xii.  14 17 

''              xii.  15 14 

Galatians,  vi.  14 83 

Ephesians,  iv.  11-T3 16 

Philippians,  i.  20 22 

'^             iii.  18 144 

Colossians,  i.  28,  29 16 

1  Thessalonians,  ii.  4 81 

ii-  7 144 

2  Timothy,  ii.  15       9 

"            iii.  16,  17 29 

"            iv.  2 97 

Hebrews,  iv.  12 35 

"       v.  12 127 

"       xi.  27 141 

James,  ii.  10, 187 

"      iii.  2 114 

I  Peter,  v.  3 13 

3  John,  9 41 


(307) 


INDEX. 


Adullam,  cave  of,  a  British  Senator's  notions  of,  171, 

Aggressiveness  the  Hfe  of  the  Church,  288. 

Alexander,  Rev.  Dr.  J.  W.,  referred  to,  iii. 

American  congregations  and  the  Bible,  227. 

Apostles,  ministry  of  the,  16. 

Arguments  Hke  soldiers,  121,  125. 

Arnot,  Rev.  Wilham,  reference  to,  202. 

Articulation,  distinctness  of,  how  to  be  acquired,  72. 

Artificiality   to  be  avoided  in  the  pulpit,  5,  72,  and  in  piety,  260. 

Bautain,  M.,  quoted  from,  Sj. 

Beecher,  Rev.  Dr.  Lyman,  reference  to  his  sermons  on  intem- 
perance, 135. 

Beecher,  Rev.  H.  W.,  references  to,  183,  193,  195. 

Bengel,  canon  of,  for  exposition,  lyy. 

Bible,  the  instrument  of  the  preacher's  power,  29 ;  how  to  read 
the,  so  as  to  prepare  for  preaching  32  ;  biographies  of,  to 
be  studied  for  a  knowledge  of  human  nature,  40 ;  no  book 
of,  to  be  neglected,  168;  too  common  ignorance  of,  170; 
public  reading  of,  213  ;  should  be  in  the  pew  as  well  as  in 
the  pulpit,  227  ;  relation  of,  to  science,  301,  303. 

Biblicus,  Doctor,  166. 

Binney,  Rev.  Thomas,  references  to,  32,  68,  70. 

Blackie,  Professor,  quoted  from,  21,  59. 

Blaikie,  Rev.  Dr.,  quoted  from,  124. 

Bonar,  Rev.  A.  A.,  Visitor's  Hand-Book  of  Texts,  referred  to, 
268. 

Books,  knowledge  of,  a  necessary  preparation  for  the  preacher, 
53;  value  of,  54;  what  to  read,  55;  how  to  read,  56;  ex- 
emplified in  the  case  of  Butler's  Analogy,  57. 


310  INDEX. 

Brevity  in  a  sermon,  not  in  and  of  itself  an  excellence,  126;  the 

cry  for,  not  of  good  omen,  127. 
Bright,  John,  references  to,  64,  171,  262. 
Broadway  Tabernacle,  congregational  singing,  238. 
Brougham,  Lord,  quotations  from,  121,  202. 
Butler's  Analogy,  how  to  read,  57. 

Calderwood,  Rev.  Henry,  LL.D.,  referred  to,  60. 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  reference  to,  20. 

Cautions,  preliminary,  2-10;  regarding  expository  preaching, 
178  ;  regarding  the  use  of  illustrations,  196. 

Cecil,  Rev.  Richard,  referred  to,  55. 

Chaucer,  quotation  from,  260. 

Chalmers,  Rev.  Dr.  Thomas,  references  to,  43,  65,  ^-J,  93,  I49» 
152,  252. 

Channing's  Self-culture  referred  to,  59. 

Choirs,  what  is  needed  in,  233. 

Christ,  tenderness  of,  a  model  for  preachers,  145  ;  use  of  illus- 
trations by,  195. 

Christian,  the,  a  citizen,  296. 

Church,  life  of,  consists  in  aggressiveness,  288. 

Circumlocution,  evil  of,  67. 

Coleridge,  S.  T„  quotation  from,  27. 

Common  sense  essential  to  the  preacher,  75. 

Comments  during  the  reading  of  the  Scriptures,  remarks  on, 
224. 

Congregations,  difference  between  Scotch  and  American,  in  the 
use  of  the  Bible,  227,  228. 

Conflict,  the,  between  capital  and  labor,  286  ;  how  to  meet,  294. 

Courage  necessary  to  the  preacher's  effectiveness,  138;  distin- 
guished trom  personal  invective,  140;  how  to  secure,  141  ; 
relation  of  tenderness  to,  144. 

Cowper,  William,  referred  to,  147,  255. 

Crawford,  Rev.  Thomas,  D.D.,  on  the  atonement,  referred  to,  32. 

Cross,  the  preaching  of,  88  ;  two  elements  of  its  power,  89. 

Cumming,  Rev.  Dr.,  reference  to,  224. 


INDEX. 


311 


Dale,  R.  W.,  reference  to,  essntial  on  the  atonement,  32. 
Definiteness  of  aim  essential  to  an  effective  sermon,  no. 
Delivery,  general  counsels  on,  72-75,  148  ;  use  of  a  manuscript 

in,  149;  comparison  of  different  methods,  150. 
Demosthenes,  references  to,  75,  202. 
Design  of  the  ministry,  15-18. 
Dick,  Rev.  John,  D.D,,  story  of,  166 ;  lectures  on  the  Acts  of  the 

Apostles,  179. 
Diminutive  themes  to  be  avoided  by  the  preacher,  in. 
Doctrine  to  be  preached,  84,  86, 
Dull  devotion,  cure  of,  212. 

Earnestness  distinguished  from  rant,  131  ;  springs  from  per- 
sonal conviction,  132;  and  from  a  vivid  realization  of  the 
position  of  the  hearers,  135. 

"Ecce  Homo,"  quotation  from,  290, 

Effective  preaching  defined,  107  ;  effort  to  secure,  not  incon- 
sistent with  faith  in  the  agency  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  107  ; 
definiteness  of  aim  necessary  to,  no  ;  precision  of  language 
necessary  to,  no;  clearness  in  arrangement  necessary  to, 
121  ;  depends  on  the  preacher's  earnestness,  131  ;  on  his 
courage,  138  ;  and  on  his  tenderness,  144. 

Eloquence  different  from  rhetoric,  18-21. 

Emphasis,  importance  of,  appropriate,  74. 

Emerson,  R.  W.,  referred  to,  59. 

Epithets,  employment  of,  66. 

Exhaustiveness  in  a  sermon  not  always  desirable,  n2. 

Expository  Preaching  defined,  155,  156,  157;  method  of,  158; 
use  of  historical  imagination  in,  1 59  ;  powers  required  for^ 
160 ;  preparation  for,  160  ;  brings  preacher  and  hearers 
face  to  face  with  the  mind  of  the  Spirit,  162  ;  secures  variety 
of  topics,  164;  keeps  the  minister  from  neglecting  truths 
which  might  otherwise  be  overlooked,  166  ;  secures  attention 
to  all  the  books  of  the  Bible,  168  ;  promotes  biblical  intelli- 
gence,  170;  accumulates  stores  for  topical    sermons,   172; 


312 


INDEX. 


objections  to,  answered,  175  ;  cautions  concerning,  178  ;  ex- 
amples of,  179  ;  relation  of,  to  social  questions,  293. 
Extemporizers  have  frequently  that  which  is  equivalent  to  veil- 
ing, 118. 

Faber,  F.  W.,  quoted  from,  138. 

Fairbairn,  Principal,  quoted  from,  12. 

Follett,  Sir  Wm.,  story  of,  with  George  Stephenson,  123. 

Galatians,  Epistle  to  the,  characterized  and  accounted  for, 

135- 
Gatty,  Mrs.  Alfred,  "  Parables  from  Nature,''  referred  to,  235. 
Gospel  described,  81  ;  the  true  remedy  for  social  evils,  288. 
Graham,  Rev.  William,  referred  to,  55,  60. 
Grant,  Sir  Robert,  reference  to,  244. 
Guthrie,  Rev.  Dr.  Thomas,  references  to,  and  quotations  from, 

43,  65  ;  on  the  use  of  illustrations,  192;  memoirs  of,  quoted 

from,  187,  188  ;  experiences  at  Arbrilot,  191  ;  at  his  highland 

home,  195  ;  tendency  of,  in  illustration,  202. 

Half-Truths  guarded  against  by  expository  preaching,  168. 

Hall,  Rev.  Robert,  references  to,  7,  118,  262. 

Hamilton,  Rev.  Dr.  James,  illustrations   of,  from   spiders,  199  ; 

story  told  by,  249. 
Hamilton,  Sir  William,  on  Guthrie's  illustrations,  187. 
Heathenism  at  home,  285  ;  how  to  meet,  289-294. 
Henry,  Matthew,  commentary  of,  225. 
Herbert,  George,  quotation  from,  233. 

Highland  Shepherd,  gathering  his  flock,  122  ;  and  the  lambs,  275. 
Hippodrome  services,  reference  to,  290-292. 
History  to  be  studied  for  a  knowledge  of  the  human  heart,  41. 
Horace,  quotation  from,  26. 

Human  heart,  knowledge  of,  necessary  to  the  preacher,  35. 
Hunt,  Holman,  story  of  his  painting,  "The  Light  of  the  World," 

278. 


INDEX.  3 1  3 

Hymns,  selection  of  the,  for  public  worship,  237  ;  should  be  read 
before  they  are  sung,  239. 

Illustrations,  use  of,  in  preaching,  183  ;  must  not  form  the 
staple  of  a  sermon,  183  ;  lesson  in  use  of,  from  an  English 
artisan,  185  ;  make  the  thought  plain,  186;  have  a  force  of 
proof,  187;  awaken  the  attention,  190;  make  permanent 
impressions,  191  ;  how  to  get,  192  ;  use  of,  by  our  Lord,  195  ; 
not  to  be  employed  for  things  already  plain,  196  ;  must  not 
be  too  numerous,  197  ;  recondite  things  must  not  be  em- 
ployed for,  198  ;  humor  in,  200:  must  be  accurately  expressed, 
200  ;  full  force  of,  must  go  to  illuminate  the  truth,  201. 

Imitation,  evil  of,  5, 

Importance  of  self-knowledge  to  the  preacher,  37-40. 

Individuality  to  be  preserved  by  the  preacher,  5. 

Irving,  Rev.  Edward,  references  to,  125,  276. 

James,  Rev.  J.  A.,  referred  to,  93. 

Jay,  Rev.  WilHam,  quotations  from,  in  reference  to,  20,  122,  124, 

146,   149. 
Jethro's  Advice  to  Moses  valuable  to  ministers,  264. 
Johnson,  Samuel,  referred  to,  56. 
Jouffroy,  saying  of,  concerning  scientific  men,  300. 

Ker,  Rev.  Dr.  John,  on   the   logic  of  illustrations,   187;  on  the 
originals  of  Guthrie's  similes,  195. 

Lantern,  the  Preacher's,  quoted  from,  65,  199. 
Lawson,  Rev.  Dr,  George,  story  of,  76. 
Leigh  ton,  Archbishop,  quoted  from,  210. 
Leifchild,  Dr.,  quotation  from,  118. 
Length  of  a  sermon,  remarks  on  the,  125. 
Liddon,  Canon,  quoted  from,  243. 
Life  Thoughts,  by  H.  W.  Beecher,  193. 

"  Like"  related  to  "likely,"  188  ;  and  that  for  which  we  have  a 
"  liking,"  190. 


314 


INDEX. 


Lighthouse  at  Sandy-Hook,  illustration  from,  203. 

Light  of  the  World,  by  Holman  Hunt,  278. 

Literature,   knowledge   of,  necessary  as   a  preparation  for  the 

preacher,  53. 
Logic  of  illustrations,  187, 
Love  and  Righteousness  the  two  elements  of  the  power  of  the 

Cross,  89.  • 

Macall,  Rev.  Dr.,  references  to,  21,  220. 

Macaulay's  Essays,  quoted  from,  203, 

MacGregor,  John,  referred  to,  49. 

Maclaren,  Rev.  Alexander,  quoted  from,  85,  92. 

Macleod,  Rev.  Alexander,  D.D.,  reference  to  his  Christus  Con- 
solator,  104. 

Manuscript,  use  of  a,  148-152. 

Martyn,  Henr)',  saying  of,  306. 

Masses,  the,  condition  of,  285  ;  danger  to  the  nation  from,  286 ; 
danger  to  the  Church  from,  287. 

Method  in  a  sermon,  true  place  of,  124. 

Milton,  John,  quoted  from,   71,   188. 

Mingling  with  men  recommended  for  the  getting  of  a  knowledge 
of  human  nature,  44. 

Minister,  Christ  the  model,  11;  for  the  church,  not  the 
church  for  him,  13  ;  a  helper  of  others,  14,  45,  48;  must 
renounce  self,  1 5  ;  different  from  an  Evangelist,  94 ;  relation 
of,  to  choir,  236  ;  should  sing  with  the  people,  239 ;  should 
not  attempt  too  many  things  at  once  in  the  beginning  of  his 
pastorate,  261  ;  should  not  hang  everything  on  his  own  neck, 
264  ;  should  not  seek  to  have  his  own  way  in  everything,  265  ; 
must  give  himself  entirely  to  his  work,  283  ;  should  organize 
his  people  for  work,  289 ;  relation  of,  to  politics,  295 ; 
should  not  be  an  alarmist  about  science,  299, 

Ministry  a  service,  10  ;  design  of  the,  15  ;  range  of  the,  99,  285. 

of  the  Apostles,  16. 

Monotony,  evil  of,  74. 

Mont  ]51anc,  illustration  from,  164, 


INDEX. 


315 


Moody,  D.  L.,  work  of,  references  to,  34,  290,  293. 
Music   not  worth  a  church  quarrel,  231  ;  general  remarks  on, 
234. 

Newton,  John,  tenderness  of,  146. 

Nehemiah,  book  of,  too  commonly  neglected,   169  ;   a   Scottish 

woman's  criticism  on  tenth  chapter  of,  169. 
Nicol,  Robert,  motto  from,  295. 

Oratory  distinguished  from  rhetoric,  18-21  ;  Sunday-school, 
common  fault  of,  184. 

Pastoral  visitation,  personal  experiences  in,  271  ;  present  plan 
of  273  ;  hints  for,  275. 

of    the    sick,  importance    of,    267 ;  counsels    on,    268  ; 

indirect  benefits  of,  270. 

Pastorate,  relation  of,  to  the  pulpit,  259-261  ;  hints  for  the  begin- 
ning of  a,  261-267. 
Paul,  example  of,  12,  14,    17,  22;  gospel  according  to,  82,   88, 

91,  92,  98,  102  ;  tenderness  of,  144;  humor  of,  200. 
Peace  in  a  church  essential  to  prosperity,  235. 
Pearsal,  J.  Spencer,  on  pubUc  worship,  254. 

Pen,  use  of  the,  an  essential  preparation  for  the  preacher,  61  ; 
gives  definiteness  to  thinking,  62;  ministers'  too  readiness  of 
expression,  62;  secures  precision  of  language,  114;  secures 
that  each  part  of  the  discourse  shall  have  its  due  propor- 
tion, 116. 

Personal  experiences  of  the  author,  13,  28,  33,  37,  42,  43,  46,  60, 

92,  95,  112,  147,  149,  150,  185,  193,  200,  263,  271, 
Perspicuity  essential  to  a  good  style,  64. 

Pew,  Bible  should  be  in  the,  227. 

Piety,  artificial,  to  be  avoided,  260. 

Plain  things  do  not  need  to  be  illustrated,  196. 

Politics  and  the  pulpit,  295,  299. 

Porter,  President,  on  Books  and  Reading,  referred  to,  59. 

Rev.  Dr.,  of  Andover,  referred  to,  254. 


3i6 


INDEX. 


Pousa,  the  Chinese  potter,  story  of,  21. 

Praise,  public,  use  of  hymns  in,  231  ;  use  of  instrumental  music 
in,  232  ;  employment  of  choirs  in,  233  ;  selections  of  hymns 
for,  237  ;  relation  of  minister's  example  and  preaching  to, 

239. 

Prayer,  connection  of,  in  the  closet  with  power  in  the  pulpit,  26. 

Prayer,  public,  most  important  part  of  service,  241  ;  requires 
preparation  of  the  heart,  241  ;  must  spring  from  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  circumstances  of  the  peop'e,  241  ;  should  be 
preceded  by  a  season  of  privacy,  242  ;  exhaustive  labor  of, 
243  ;  should  be  common  and  not  individual,  245  ;  petitionary 
and  not  hortatory,  246  ;  real  and  not  artificial,  249 ;  definite 
and  direct,  251  ;  intercessory  and  not  selfish,  254. 

Preacher  cannot  begin  at  that  which  is  the  maturity  of  another, 
2;  preparation  of  the,  25-78;  must  be  a  sincere  Christian, 
25  ;  differs  from  an  evangelist,  95. 

Preacher's  Lantern,  The,  referred  to,  65,  199. 

Preaching,  expository,  155;  advantages  of,  162-172;  objections 
to,  answered,  175  ;  cautions  concerning,  178  ;  examples  of, 
179  ;  relation  of,  to  social  questions,  293. 

Preaching,  effective,  defined,  107  ;  qualities  of,  in  the  sermon, 
no;  in  the  preacher,  131. 

Precision  of  language,  how  to  secure,  114. 

Preparation  of  the  preacher,  25-78. 

Proportion  in  a  sermon,  how  to  secure,  11 6-1 18. 

Public  reading  of  the  Scriptures,  hints  on,  215-227. 

Public  speaking,  how  to  secure  facility  and  distinctness  in,  72. 

Public  worship,  relation  of,  to  preaching,  207 ;  essential  things 
in,  209  ;  relation  of  a  filial  heart  to,  210. 

Pulpit,  theme  of,  81  ;  range  of,  99  ;  peculiar  and  distinctive 
power  of,  162;  relation  of,  to  pastorate,  259;  relation  of, 
to  social  questions,  285  ;  to  political  matters,  295  ;  to  scien- 
tific subjects,  299. 

Range  of  the  Preacher,  99,  285. 

Reading  of  the  Scriptures  in  public  worship,  advantages  of,  214  ; 


INDEX. 


317 


reverence  in,  214;  selection  of  passages  for,  215  ;  relation 
of  private  devotional  reading  to,  216;  length  of  selections 
for,  218  ;  whole  attention  to  be  given  to,  for  the  time,  219  ; 
should  indicate  the  meaning,  220 ;  hints  for,  222-224 ' 
whether  or  not  to  be  accompanied  by  comments,  224-227  ; 
preparation   necessary   for,    223. 

Rhetoric  different  from  eloquence,  18-21. 

Robertson,  Rev.  F.  W.,  referred  to,  119. 

Sandy-Hook  Lighthouse,  illustration  from,  203. 
Sankey,  Mr.,  singing  the  Gospel,  233. 

Science  does  not  meet  all  human  needs,  303  ;  not  necessarily 
connected  with   infidelity,  300 ;  relation  of  revelation  to, 

301,  303- 
Scientific  subjects  and  the  pulpit,  291-305, 
Scriptures,  acquaintance  with  the,  essential  to  the  preacher,  29- 

35  ;  public  reading  of  the,  213  ;  copies  of  the,  should  be  in 

the  pews,  227. 
Self-knowledge,  importance  of,  to  the  preacher,  37. 
Self-renunciation  the  root  of  excellence,  14,  21. 
Seminary  duties  not  to  be  neglected,  27, 
Sermon  should  have  a  distinct  aim,  no ;  should  be  written,  114 

like  a  pyramid,  122  ;  like  the  shooting  of  an  arrow,  122, 
Shakespeare,  works  of,  to  be  studied  for  a  knowledge  of  human 

nature,  41  ;  Guthrie's  opinion  of,  43  ;  Sir  James  Stephens  on, 

44;  quotation  from,  131. 
Shepherd,  Highland,  gathering  his  flock,  122  ;  with  the  lambs,  275. 
Ship-builder  on  the  Tyne,  story  of,  47. 
Sick,  visitation  ot  the,  hints  for,  267-270. 

•  Smeaton,  Rev.  Professor,  on  the  atonement,  reference  to,  32. 
Social  subjects  and  the  pulpit,  285. 
South  Kensington  Museum,  illustration  from,  1 59  ; 
Spurgeon,  Rev.  C.  H.,  quotations  from  and  references  to,  19,  119, 

184,  224,  254  ;  treasury  of  David,  225. 
Spirit  of  adoption,  the,  is  the  spirit  of  supplication,  21  i. 
Stanley,  Dean  A.  P.,  referred  to,  55. 


3i8 


INDEX. 


Stephenson,  George,  story  of,  123. 

Storrs,  Rev.  R.  S.,  D  D.,  referred  to,  120. 

Style,  how  to   form  a  good,  63  ;  perspicuity  of,  64 ;  evil  of  pre- 

tensiveness  in,  64, 
Sunday-school  oratory,  common  fault  of,  184. 
Swift,  Dean,  saying  of,  56. 
System  of  theology  to  be  formed  from  the  Bible,  31. 

Tenderness  necessary  to  effectiveness,  144 ;  how  related  to 

courage,  144  ;  how  to  be  acquired,  146. 
Tennyson,  Alfred,  quoted  from,  9,  135. 
Theme  of  the  minister,  81. 
Theological  training,  necessity  of,  27. 
Trench,  Archbishop,  quoted  from,  189. 
Truths  in  situ  found  by  the  Expositor,  165. 

Unconsciousness,   Carlyle's  gospel  of,  20. 
Unity  in  a  sermon  enforced,  122. 
Use  of  a  manuscript,  149. 

Visitation,  of  the  sick,  267-270;  pastoral,  271 ;  hints  for, 
275. 

Whateley,  Archbishop,  references  to,  32,  67. 
Whittier,  J.  G.,  quotation  from,  268. 
Wilberforce,  Bishop  Samuel,  quoted  from,  30. 
Willmott's  "  Pleasures  and  Advantages  of  Literature  "  referred 
to,  59. 

Young  Ministers  apt  to  forget  to  preach  to  Christians,  95  , 
like  young  delvers,  113;  danger  of,  from  attempting  too 
many  things  at  first,  262. 

Young,  importance  of  looking  well  to,  275. 


H 


/ 


Princeton  Theological  Seminary-Speer  Library 


1    1012 


01055  1465 


Date  Due 

t'^^^******^ 

V 

FACfffflf" 

. 

,j^gp<i«i#»^ 

iW 

f'litiiiililrFifiiihi 

IK 

b^-^^ 

-irffiif     ] 

^'wWbsfc 

^Ne0«. 

d 

PRINTED 

IN  U.  8.  A. 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Libraries 


1    1012  01166   1768 


